Monday Mayhem: Global sell-off sends Sensex down by 811 pts; investors lose over Rs 4 lakh crore wealth

Indian share market benchmarks BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 crashed over 2 per cent in Monday mayhem, in sync with negative global cues. The 30-share Sensex plunged 956 points from day’s high and ended at 38,034. While the broader Nifty 50 index breached the crucial 11,250 on the downside to settle at 11,222. The Indian Express examined Indian connections in a cache of over 2000 secret documents which have been red-flagged to the top US financial watchdog, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) for suspected money laundering, terrorism, drug dealing or financial fraud. The Indian Express, along with 109 media organisations teamed up with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and BuzzFeed News to trace the Indian entities and banks named in these SARs filed with FinCEN between 1999 and 2017. “Indices on Monday slid 2.5% on reported irregularities in certain global banks which spooked markets globally. Fears of another lockdown in the UK created further scare here as investors booked profits in several stocks which have rallied sharply over the last couple of weeks,”  said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

RIL drags Sensex: Index heavyweights such Reliance Industries (RIL), ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, HUL and Axis Bank contributed the most to the indices’ loss. “Indian benchmark indices succumbed to profit booking in the second half of the trading day and ended more than 2% down. It was in sync with global cues which turned negative following a surge in infections in various countries including in Europe,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Investors lose Rs 4 lakh crore wealth: In the Monday mayhem, investors lost Rs 4 lakh crore. The market capitalization of all BSE listed firms stood at Rs 159 lakh crore at Friday’s close, the same was down to Rs 154.6 lakh crore on Monday at the end of the day’s trading.

India VIX jumps 13%: Volatility made a comeback was back to scare stock markets on Monday. India VIX opened at 20.05 on Monday and went down till 18.27. However, it jumped 13 per cent to end at 22.6 level.

Top Sensex losers: Out of 30 Sensex stocks, 27 scrips ended deep in red with IndusInd Bank falling 8.67 per cent. It was followed by Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance and Nestle India.

All sectoral indices in red: All the sectoral indices, settled in the negative territory. Nifty Metal index lost 5.53 per cent, followed by 4.46 per cent loss in Nifty Pharma index. After trading in the green for the most part of the day, Nifty IT index too settled lower.