Bears tighten grip on D-Street: Investors suffer wealth erosion of Rs 25.31 lakh cr in 8 days

New Delhi, Feb 14 (PTI) Investors' wealth eroded sharply by Rs 25.31 lakh crore in eight days of market crash wherein the BSE benchmark Sensex tumbled over 3 per cent amid concerns over unabated foreign fund outflows, lower-than-expected quarterly earnings and uncertainty over global trade war.

In eight trading days, the BSE benchmark tanked 2,644.6 points or 3.36 per cent, and the NSE Nifty slumped 810 points or 3.41 per cent.

On Friday, the 30-share BSE bellwether gauge dropped 199.76 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 75,939.21, registering its eighth day of decline.

Tracking an extremely weak trend in equities, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms dropped by Rs 25,31,579.11 crore to Rs 4,00,19,247 crore (USD 4.61 trillion) in eight days.

"The gloomy mood continued as investors are perturbed by lingering foreign fund outflows," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

US President Donald Trump has asserted that Washington will not spare India from reciprocal tariffs.

The President has set in motion his plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on imports, which is expected to further deepen the global trade war.

Vishnu Kant Upadhyay, AVP - Research & Advisory, Master Capital Services, said, "Investor sentiment took a hit after Trump reiterated his stance on imposing reciprocal tariffs on trade partners, which includes India too, reigniting fears of a potential trade war. Uncertainty surrounding tariff structures could weigh on investor confidence." "Weak corporate earnings for the December quarter further dampened market sentiment with several sectors showing weaker-than-anticipated recovery. Further, the high valuations on which the Indian equity market was trading were not able to justify the growth. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are continuously selling their stakes in the Indian equity market." From the 30-share blue-chip pack, Adani Ports dropped over 4 per cent. UltraTech Cement, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, NTPC and Tata Steel were also among the laggards.

Nestle, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Tech were among the gainers.

"The risk-averse sentiment continues to rule investors’ minds as corporate earnings are significantly lower than the market expectations during the start of the year, especially for mid and small caps. Muted earnings trend, INR depreciation along with external factors like tariffs are expected to keep the sentiments weak in the near term, which could further push FIIs outflows," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.

The BSE smallcap gauge tanked 3.24 per cent and midcap index dropped 2.59 per cent.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, services plunged 3.16 per cent, industrials (3.03 per cent), capital goods (2.76 per cent), power (2.65 per cent), utilities (2.52 per cent), consumer durables (2.39 per cent), commodities (2.25 per cent) and realty (2.03 per cent).

BSE Focused IT emerged as the only gainer.

As many as 3,320 stocks declined while 681 advanced and 82 remained unchanged on the BSE. PTI SUM DRR

Source: PTI