On Wednesday, the BSE’s 30-share Sensex fell 1,122.66 points or 1.40 percent to settle at 79,116.19. During the day, it fell 1,795.65 points or 2.23 percent to 78,443.20. Since Friday, the BSE benchmark has lost 2,171 points or 2.67 percent since February 28 amid the outbreak of hostilities between Iran and the US-Israel.
The market capitalization of BSE-listed companies fell to Rs 4,47,18,243.15 crore (USD 4.85 trillion) from Rs 16,32,428.12 crore last week. Equity markets were closed on Tuesday for Holi.
“Markets traded with a negative bias on Wednesday, extending their recent corrective trend amid weak global cues and persistent geopolitical concerns. Investor sentiment remained weak amid uncertainty surrounding weak global cues, rising crude oil prices and geopolitical developments. Continued selling and foreign exchange institutional expansion prevented expansion,” said Ajit Mishra, SVP Research, Religor Broking.
Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose 1.63 percent to US$82.73 a barrel.
Of the Sensex pack, Tata Steel fell 6.76 percent, followed by Larsen and Toubro (4.53 percent). Bajaj Finance, Ultra Tech Cement, NTPC, Interglobe Aviation, Bajaj Finance and Hindustan Unilever were among the laggards.
Bharti Airtel, Infosys and Tech Mahindra were the beneficiaries. The BSE Small Cap Select Index fell 2.42 percent and the Mid Cap Select Index fell 2.10 percent.
Among the sectoral indices, metals fell 4 percent, BSE PSU Bank (3.50 percent), industrials (3.29 percent), real estate (3.16 percent), commodities (3.12 percent), capital goods (2.64 percent), power (2.59 percent), services (2.23 percent) and energy (2.23 percent).
A total of 3,245 stocks declined, while 1,053 advanced and 135 were unchanged on the BSE.
Asian markets ended with deep declines. South Korea’s Kospi fell 12 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225, Shanghai’s SSE Composite Index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also ended significantly lower.
