As news of a new coronavirus variant surfaced from Africa, the key equity indices fell by nearly 3% each on Thursday, leaving the Indian markets bleeding. Friday’s crash, the worst in 7 months, wiped out investor wealth by Rs 7.35 lakh core. The market valuation of all BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 2,58,31,172.25 crore. At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex slumped to 1687.94 points or 2.87%, while the Nifty 50 dropped by 509.80 points or 2.91%. Just a day after the markets revived, the renewed threat of Covid, losses in Asian stocks, plummeting realty and metal sectors led to the major crash. While all sectors witnessed significant losses, only the healthcare sector managed to gain with 1.18%. The sectors facing major losses, other than realty and metal are auto and basic materials.
Among stocks, the top gainer was Dr Reddys Labs which surged 3.32% to Rs 4,744.90 per share, followed by Nestle up by 0.35% to Rs 19,255 per share, and Asian Paints with a minimal surge of 0.01% to Rs 3,143.90 per share. IndusInd Bank cracked by 6.01%, followed by Maruti Suzuki down by 5.27%, Tata Steel by 5.23%.
The discovery of the variant B.1.1.529, with more than 30 mutations, spread panic through the markets globally with investors dumping assets considered risky, amid fears that the global economy will be derailed once again. That several countries started imposing travel bans did not help matters.
Stocks worldwide crashed on Friday, with travel stocks in Europe taking a hard hit. Oil also slipped, with Brent crude falling by 5% in Europe to stand at $78.15 per barrel. US crude fell by 5.5% to reach $74.08.