Sensex fall: Rs 500,000 crore lost in 5 days!

Investors' stock market wealth has plunged by nearly Rs 500,000 crore (Rs 5 trillion) in five straight days of trading, as the market continued its downslide on Monday with a 468-point plunge in the benchmark Sensex.

Barring the first day of trading on January 3, markets have recorded a loss on all days so far in the New Year with the Sensex losing 1,337 points in five consecutive trading sessions.

In the process, the total investor wealth, measured in terms of cumulative market value of all listed companies, has plummetted by nearly Rs 500,000 crore and stood at Rs 6,887,194.38 crore (Rs 6.88 trillion) at the end of Monday's trade.

. . . 

Out of this, more than Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1 trillion) has been eroded from the market value of the country's ten biggest companies alone, which include blue chips like Reliance Industries, ONGC, TCS, Infosys, Coal India and SBI.

The 30 Sensex companies together lost about Rs 200,000 crore (Rs 2 trillion) in the last five days of trading.

The Sensex on Monday closed at its six-week low on continued selling by edgy investors, ahead of third quarter corporate results and weak global cues.

. . . 

Experts said that investors are bogged down by fears of interest rate hike coupled with negative show of global peers.

Reliance Industries, which dropped by over 3 per cent today, has lost approximately Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) of market value in the past five trading sessions, while losses for the period is much higher at about Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) for PSU giant ONGC.

SBI has also lost about Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) in this period, while giants like TCS, Coal India, NTPC, ITC and Bharti Airtel have lost about Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) each.

. . . 

The loss is relatively less for IT major Infosys at about Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion), as investors are expecting good quarterly results, while ICICI Bank has lost over Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) amid heavy selling pressure in banking stocks.

The market, which had grown by about 17 per cent in 2010, has fallen by about 6 per cent in the New Year, as it could not continue the uptrend beyond the first trading session.

The overall investor wealth had grown by nearly Rs 12,00,000 crore (Rs 12 trillion) in the entire 2010, when the Sensex grew by over 3,000 points.