Stock market today: Why Sensex fell 600 pts, investors lost Rs 4 lakh crore in early deals

Stock market today: The stock market opened lower on Wednesday with Brent crude oil prices trading at $92.21 per barrel mark today. Crude prices rose amid US and Iran trading attacks post the failure of 21-day ceasefire. In latest development, the US launched strikes on Iran for the 11th consecutive night late on Tuesday. Tehran warned against targeting its nuclear facilities. Tehran activated air defences and explosions were reported in parts of southern Iran. 

Sensex fell 619 pts to 76851 and Nifty declined 176 pts to 24,011. Stocks such as IndiGo, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Infosys, SBI, ICICI Bank were the top losers today, falling up to 3%. 
 
Maruti Suzuki, Eternal, and M&M were the top gainers on Sensex, rising up to 0.59% on Wednesday. Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell by Rs 3.91 lakh crore to Rs 480.38 lakh crore against the previous day's market cap of Rs 484.29 lakh crore.   

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments said, "Weakening of the chip trade and sharp correction in markets like South Korea during the last one month are making India relatively stable and attractive from the valuation perspective. FPIs are not selling big in India now and are turning buyers on some days. Dips in the market will provide buying opportunities in fundamentally sound stocks. The outperformance of the broader market may continue in the near-term."

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities said, "Technically, the benchmark indices continue to form indecisive candlestick patterns, suggesting that the current range could break in either direction. However, a meaningful breakout will be confirmed only if the Nifty surpasses 24,500 (Sensex 78,700) or slips below 24,000 (Sensex 76,800) on a closing basis. Until then, the market is likely to remain stock-specific with limited index movement. The preferred strategy remains unchanged: reduce weak long positions in the 24,350–24,450 (Sensex 78,300–78,600) zone, while selectively accumulating quality stocks on declines."

Previous session

Sensex declined 238.41 points or 0.31 per cent to settle at 77,470.11, while Nifty50 index fell 50.80 points or 0.21 per cent to close at 24,187.70.