Sensex tanks over 600 points: Rs 2L cr investor wealth lost; HDFC twins, Infosys, TCS top drags

Indian equity benchmarks fell sharply in afternoon trade on Tuesday after recording a rebound in the previous session. The BSE Sensex slumped over 600 points while the NSE barometer Nifty hit the sub-17,950 level. At 12:01 pm, the 30-pack Sensex was down 594 points or 0.98 per cent at 60,153. The NSE benchmark was down 168 points or 0.93 per cent at 17,933. Such was the fall in the domestic indices that more than Rs 2 lakh crore of BSE market capitalisation (m-cap) was wiped out. Investors awaited December's retail inflation data to determine interest rate expectations. The data is scheduled to be released on Thursday post-market hours. "Market would be keenly watching the Jerome Powell Speech today and the CPI (India's retail inflation for December) data," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

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

Rs 2.07 lakh crore investor wealth lost

Investor wealth, as suggested by the BSE m-cap, fell Rs 2.07 lakh crore to Rs 280.92 lakh crore compared with a valuation of Rs 282.99 lakh crore recorded yesterday. Frontline stocks such as HDFC twins (HDFC and HDFC Bank), Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Reliance Industries contributed to the fall.

22 stocks hit 52-week lows on BSE

As many as 22 stocks hit their 52-week lows today. BSE stocks such as Galaxy Surfactants, Gland Pharma, Vodafone Idea, Thyrocare Technologies and 18 other stocks hit their respective one-year low levels. That said, 89 stocks touched their one-year high levels today.

1,947 stocks in the red

Out of 3,475 stocks, 1,947 stocks were seen declining. Only 1,351 stocks were advancing while 177 stocks remained unchanged.

Airtel, SBI down up to 2.90%

Shares of Bharti Airtel and State Bank of India (SBI) fell 2.90 per cent and 2.22 per cent, respectively, in afternoon deals.

IT, financials and banks top drag

For Sensex, the major culprits that dragged the index lower were HDFC twins, Infosys, TCS, Reliance, Airtel, SBI, ITC, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance. HDFC twins, Infy and TCS alone contributed negatively to around 270-point decline.

On NSE, 12 out of the 15 sub-indices were down. However, gains in automobile and healthcare indexes capped some losses.

FII-DII data

Foreign institutional investors sold Rs 203.13 crore worth of equities on a net basis on Monday, while domestic investors bought about Rs 1,723.79 crore worth of shares, as per provisional NSE data.

On the global front, Asian markets were seen trading mixed today. Japan's Nikkei index rose 0.75 per cent, South Korea's Kospi index was up 0.22 per cent; while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.34 per cent and China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.18 per cent. Two of three major US indices settled lower overnight.

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