Over Rs 3 lakh cr investor wealth eroded as stock market plunges

New Delhi: Investors' wealth on Monday got eroded by Rs 3.39 lakh crore after the Sensex plummeted 793 points amid the Union Budget overhang and heavy sell-off in global equities.

Intra-day, the 30-share BSE benchmark index fell sharply by 907.91 points to 38,605.48. It closed at 38,720.57, down 792.82 points, or 2.01 per cent.

Led by the sharp sell-off in equities, the market capitalisation of the BSE-listed companies dropped by Rs 3,39,192.97 crore to Rs 1,47,96,302.89 crore.

In the previous two sessions, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms plummeted Rs 5,61,772.64 crore. The index had dropped 394.67 points on Friday.

"Today's the market fall has been due to a combination of global and domestic factors. Globally, a positive payroll expansion ahead of estimations has led to a fear of anticipated Fed rate cut not coming through. Domestically, proposals in the Budget to increase the minimum public shareholding levels to 35 per cent was a dampener along with a 20 per cent tax on share buybacks," said Pradeep Kesavan, senior vice-president, equity strategy, institutional equities, Elara Capital.

From the 30-share pack, 27 companies faced selling pressure led by Bajaj Finance, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti Suzuki India.

On the BSE, 1,953 scrips declined and 571 advanced, while 145 remained unchanged.

Religare Broking Ltd Vice President (Research) Ajit Mishra said, "Markets plunged and lost over two per cent, in continuation to Friday's decline. After the gap down start, the benchmark index gradually inched lower as the day progressed. List of factors viz. disappointment from the Union Budget, weak progress of monsoon and feeble global cues dampened the sentiment and triggered sell-off across the board."

In her maiden Budget Speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said it was the right time to consider an increase in minimum public shareholding from 25 per cent to 35 per cent.

As many as 1,174 listed firms, including giants like TCS, Wipro and DMart, will have to offload promoter stakes worth about Rs 3.87 lakh crore, a Centrum Broking report said.

"The market fall today was on account of concerns over future fund flow into the secondary market and scam revelation at PNB (Punjab National Bank). Fears around squeeze in secondary market liquidity is also due to proposed higher public shareholding norms," YES Securities President and Research Head Amar Ambani said.

All the BSE sectoral indices ended in the red, with capital goods, realty, automobile, power, industrials, finance, banking indices falling up to 3.78 per cent.

In the broader market, the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices fell by up to 2.46 per cent.