Investors' wealth plunges Rs 8.30 lakh crore in 6 trading sessions

Stock market investors became poorer by Rs 8.30 lakh crore as equities continued their slide for the sixth consecutive day on Friday.

The BSE Sensex has tumbled 1,855.58 points or 3 per cent since February 16.

During this period, the combined market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms has tanked Rs 8,30,322.61 crore to reach Rs 2,60,00,662.99 crore.

"The domestic market is broadly demonstrating a lack of confidence, registering its sixth consecutive day of losses despite global markets turning green.

"Continued selling in the domestic market by FIIs is acting as an overhang in sustaining the early gains.

"Crude oil prices rallied as the prospect of lower Russian exports outweighed rising US inventory," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

On Friday, the BSE benchmark fell 141.87 points or 0.24 per cent to settle at 59,463.93 points.

"The downward spiral continued amid a sharp bout of intra-day volatility as uncertainty surrounding the weak global economic scenario coupled with the probability of the US Fed maintaining a hawkish stance going ahead weighed on the sentiment," Amol Athawale, Deputy Vice President - Technical Research at Kotak Securities Ltd, said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 1,417.24 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

On Friday, in the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge dipped 0.17 per cent and smallcap index declined 0.15 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, metals tanked 2.39 per cent, commodities fell 1.17 per cent, auto (0.99 per cent), realty (0.70 per cent), FMCG (0.40 per cent), power (0.38 per cent) and consumer discretionary (0.37 per cent).

Energy, healthcare, consumer durables and oil & gas indices were the gainers.

In the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Maruti, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Tech Mahindra and Bharti Airtel were the major laggards.

Among the gainers were Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, Power Grid, Reliance Industries, NTPC and UltraTech Cement.