The Indian equities markets key indices Sensex and Nifty crashed by around 2.6% on Monday wiping out nearly Rs 10 lakh crore of investors’ wealth.
The benchmark Sensex closed 2.62% or 1545.67 points down at 57,491.51 in a chaotic session on Monday. The Sensex dipped to a low of 56,984.01 points in intra-day trade, which is 2,053.17 points down from its previous session’s close at 59,037.18 points. This was the biggest intra-day slump since April 2021. The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange tumbled 468.05 points or 2.66% to 17,149.10 points.
Key indices of the Indian stock markets have closed in the red for the fifth consecutive session. However, Monday’s selloff was the worst.
Extending last week’s loss, the 30-stock S&P BSE Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange opened the Monday’s trading marginally down at 59,023.97 points against its previous session’s close at 59,037.18 points. However, the selling pressure intensified as the day progressed. The index tanked more than 2000 points by end of the trading session.
The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange opened at 17,575.15 points and slumped to a low of 16,997.85 points in the intra-day.
There was broad-based selling pressure. All the Sensex scrips closed in the red. Shares of four Sensex companies crashed by more than 5%. 18 of the 30 scrips that are part of the Sensex closed with more than 2% loss.
Tata Steel crashed 5.98% to Rs 1099.15. Bajaj Finance tumbled 5.97% to Rs 6932.75. Wipro slumped 5.35% to Rs 572.85 and Tech Mahindra tumbled 5.14% to Rs 1512.15.
The index heavyweight Reliance Industries Limited slumped 4.06% to Rs 2377.55. This is the first trading session after the company announced its financial results for the third quarter of the current financial year. RIL on Friday said its consolidated net profit for October-December 2021 quarter surged to Rs 20,539 crore ($2.8 billion), posting an increase of 37.9% year-on-year. The company’s gross revenue for the quarter ended December 31, 2021 soared 52.2% to Rs 209,823 crore ($28.2 billion).
Other major Sensex losers included: Titan 4.97% down at Rs 2402.95; HCL Technologies 3.84% down at Rs 1123.05; Bajaj Finserv 3.83% down at Rs 15707.95; Asian Paints 3.63% down at Rs 3155.80; Kotak Bank 3.20% down at Rs 1832.25 and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories 3.03% down at Rs 4362.35.