Sensex cracks 1,600 pts in 3 days; Rs 5L cr gone from D-St: Time to press panic button?

Indian equity benchmarks fell sharply in late deals, extending their fall for the third consecutive session as banks, financials and technology stocks dragged. At 1:31 pm, the 30-share BSE Sensex slumped 639 points or 1.06 per cent to trade at 59,714; while the broader NSE Nifty moved 184 points or 1.02 per cent to trade at 17,809. At today's day low of 59,674, Sensex has lost over 1,600 points in three straight days. Such was the fall in the domestic indices that nearly Rs 5 lakh crore of BSE market capitalisation (m-cap) was wiped out. Investors turned cautious after strong US data indicated the Federal Reserve would have to keep hiking interest rates. Further, all sectoral indexes logged losses ahead of the third quarter earnings season, set to begin on Monday. Indices have faced the heat due to muted earnings expectations, analysts said.

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

Rs 1.5 lakh crore investor wealth lost

Investor wealth, as suggested by the BSE m-cap, fell Rs 2.24 lakh crore to Rs 279.71 lakh crore compared with a valuation of Rs 281.95 lakh crore recorded yesterday. In three sessions, 4.94 lakh crore investor wealth was erased. Frontline stocks such as ICICI Bank, TCS, Infosys, HDFC twins (HDFC and HDFC Bank), Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance, SBI, Axis Bank and Airtel contributed to the fall.

28 stocks hit 52-week lows on BSE

As many as 28 stocks hit their 52-week lows today. BSE stocks such as Aavas Financiers, Biocon and Thyrocare Technologies and 25 other stocks hit their respective one-year low levels. That said, 100 stocks touched their one-year high levels today.

2,204 stocks in the red

Out of 3,564 stocks, 2,204 stocks were seen declining. Only 1,227 stocks were advancing while 141 stocks remained unchanged.

BF Investment, Vadilal Industries & The New India Assurance Company (NIACL) drop 8.74%

Shares of BF Investment, Vadilal Industries, The New India Assurance Company (NIACL), Sky Gold, Dharmaj Crop Guard and GIC Housing Finance fell as much as 8.74 per cent in late deals.

IT, banks & financials stocks top drag

For Sensex, the major culprits that dragged the index lower were TCS, ICICI Bank, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance and Airtel. TCS, ICICI Bank, Infosys and HDFC twins alone contributed negatively to over 300-point decline.

On NSE, 14 out of the 15 sub-indices were down. Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty IT cracked 1.37 per cent, 1.20 per cent and 2.01 per cent.

FII-DII data

Foreign institutional investors sold Rs 1,449.45 crore worth of equities on a net basis on Thursday, while domestic investors offloaded about Rs 194.09 crore worth of shares, as per provisional NSE data. "Major drag on the market now is the sustained selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs)," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

In contrast, most Asian markets were seen trading on a higher note today.

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