Sensex dives over 1,000 points, Nifty slips below 24,400; Rs 2.9L cr investor wealth lost

Indian equity benchmarks fell sharply in Tuesday's trade, dragged by banks, financials, automobile, IT and energy stocks. The BSE Sensex slumped over 1,000 points while the NSE barometer Nifty hit the sub-24,400 level. At 12:11 pm, the 30-pack Sensex was down 1,005 points or 1.23 per cent at 80,744 and the NSE benchmark was down 286 points or 1.16 per cent at 24,382. Such was the fall in the domestic indices that around Rs 2.9 lakh crore of BSE market capitalisation (m-cap) was wiped out.

Investors across the globe are waiting for the outcome of two-day US Fed meeting (starting today), which could offer a summary of projections for the world's largest economy. "Globally, markets will be looking forward to the FOMC outcome on Wednesday. Markets have already discounted a 25 basis points (bps) rate cut and, therefore, the focus will be on the Fed chief's commentary. Any departure from a dovish commentary will be a negative from the market perspective," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Here's a look at today's market fall in numbers:

Rs 2.9 lakh crore investor wealth lost

Investor wealth, as suggested by the BSE m-cap, fell Rs 2.97 lakh crore to Rs 457.08 lakh crore compared with a valuation of Rs 460.06 lakh crore recorded in the previous session. Frontline stocks such as HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Mahindra & Mahindra contributed to the fall today.

15 stocks hit 52-week lows on BSE

As many as 15 stocks hit their 52-week lows today. BSE 500 stocks such as Prince Pipes and Fittings Ltd and Tata Technologies Ltd hit their respective one-year low levels. That said, 250 stocks touched their one-year high levels today.

2,194 stocks in the red

Out of 4,002 stocks, 2,194 stocks were seen declining. Only 1,685 stocks were advancing, while 123 stocks remained unchanged.

Shriram Finance, HEG & Blue Star down up to 3%

Shares of Shriram Finance Ltd, HEG Ltd, Blue Star, Pidilite Industries, Patanjali Foods, Gurajat Ambuja Exports, Jindal Saw, Finolex Cables, Bharti Airtel and ONC Infra fell up to 3.36 per cent. In contrast, Quess Corp Ltd, CSB Bank, Piramal Pharma, Jyoti CNC Automation, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd, Craftsman Automation Ltd, Suzlon Energy, Five-Star Business Finance Ltd and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd jumped up to 8.70 per cent.

Banks, financials & metals among top drags

For Sensex, the major culprits that dragged the index lower were HDFC Bank, Airtel, RIL, ICICI Bank, L&T, TCS and M&M. HDFC Bank, Airtel and Reliance alone contributed negatively to a 331-point decline.

On NSE, 11 out of 16 sub-indices were down. Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Auto, Nifty IT and Nifty Oil & Gas fell sharply.