Sensex crash: In six days, investors lost more than Reliance’s market capitalisation

The BSE Sensex’s bearish run in the backdrop of global slowdown has resulted in Indian investors losing more than ₹18 lakh crore in the last week or so – an amount in excess of Reliance Industries Ltd’s market capitalisation of ₹17.5 lakh crore.

The gloom in the stock markets is mainly because of bearish projections, hike in interest rates by global central banks, outgoing foreign funds and a sharp rise in prices of crude oil.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms was brought down by ₹ 18,17,747.13 crore to ₹ 2,36,77,816.08 crore from June 9 to June 17. To get an idea of amount of money lost by investors, Reliance Industries Limited’s entire market worth on Friday was 17,51,686.52 crore.

On Friday (June 17), after a see-saw session, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 135.37 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at an over one-year low of 51,360.42.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty lost 67.10 points or 0.44 per cent to end at 15,293.50.

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Titan emerged as the top laggard among the Sensex constituents, skidding 6.06 per cent, followed by Wipro, Dr Reddy’s, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, L&T, UltraTech Cement and PowerGrid.

On the other hand, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, ITC, HDFC Bank and Tata Steel were among the gainers, spurting up to 2.63 per cent.

Global markets were mixed on Friday but were on course to post their worst week since the pandemic-scarred March 2020 as policy tightening by central banks have raised fears of crimping consumption and economic growth.

In Asia, markets in Tokyo and Seoul ended lower, while Hong Kong and Shanghai posted gains.

European bourses were trading in the green in mid-session deals. Stock exchanges in the US ended sharply lower on Thursday.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.96 per cent to USD 120.96 per barrel.