Market mayhem: Investors become poorer by Rs 10 lakh crore in 6 days

New Delhi: As markets extended losses for the sixth successive session, investors became poorer by nearly Rs 10 lakh crore, with Rs 2.7 lakh crore of wealth being wiped out in Tuesday's session only amid sell-off in world stocks.

The BSE Sensex cracked below the 34,000-mark by plunging about 1,275 points or 3.6 percent in opening trade yesterday. It later managed to recover some of the lost ground and finally ended at 34,195.94, down 561.22 points or 1.61 percent.

The Sensex slumped 309.59 points, or 0.88 percent, to end at 34,757.16 yesterday. The index had crashed 839.91 points, or 2.34 percent, on Friday.

Extending its falling streak for the sixth straight session, the 30-share index plunged 2,087.31 points. Post the Union Budget on February 1, the 30-share index has plummeted by 1,710.72 points.

Led by a continuous sell-off, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies plummeted by Rs 9,90,476.93 crore to Rs 1,45,22,830 crore in six trading sessions.

"Global sell-off due to spike in global bond yield resulted in a knee-jerk reaction in the domestic market. We are seeing an extended impact in the domestic market post the LTCG and fiscal deficit turmoil. However, towards close, market recouped some losses led by value buying on account of earnings growth expectations," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd.

Markets suffered after other Asian indices closed in the red, tracking record-breaking losses at the Wall Street overnight.

Investor sentiment has also been hit after the government announced in the Budget a proposal to levy 10 percent long- term capital gains (LTCG) tax on equities and projected a fiscal deficit of 3.5 percent of GDP for 2017-18.

It was a sea of red as 29 out of 30-Sensex components ended with losses led by Tata Motors. Tata Steel ended with a marginal gain of 0.06 percent.

As many as 225 stocks hit their 52-week lows on BSE yesterday.

On BSE, 2,223 stocks declined, 529 advanced and 149 remained unchanged.

The small-cap and mid-cap stocks dropped by 2.19 percent and 1.68 percent, respectively.