Bear attack: Equity investors become poorer by Rs 8.91 lakh crore in single day

Equity investors became poorer by Rs 8.91 lakh crore on Wednesday, 20 December as markets came under a bear attack, with the benchmark Sensex falling almost 931 points after hitting its fresh all-time high level.

Erasing all its early gains, the 30-share BSE Sensex crashed 930.88 points or 1.30 per cent to settle at 70,506.31 points. The index opened higher and later gained 475.88 points or 0.66 per cent to hit its all-time high of 71,913.07 points.

However, broad-based selling pulled down the benchmark to the day's low of 70,302.60 points.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies eroded by Rs 8,91,729.43 crore to Rs 3,50,19,998.87 crore.

"Markets were on a record-setting spree for a while and have been in an overbought zone, so hiccups were expected in the form of profit-taking which came to the fore today.

"Redemption was seen across the sectors, and even mid and small-cap stocks came under the grip of a strong bear hammering," Prashanth Tapse, Senior Vice President (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Among the Sensex firms, Tata Steel fell the most by 4.21 per cent. NTPC, Tata Motors, HCL Technologies, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro and JSW Steel also declined.

HDFC Bank emerged as the only gainer from the pack.

In the broader market, the BSE small-cap gauge fell 3.42 per cent and mid-cap index declined 3.12 per cent.

All the indices ended lower, with utilities tumbling 4.65 per cent, telecommunication plummeting 4.36 per cent, power declining 4.33 per cent, services falling 4.20 per cent, metal (3.57 per cent), commodities (3.51 per cent), industrials (2.85 per cent), capital goods (2.83 per cent) and consumer discretionary (2.55 per cent).

A total of 3,177 stocks declined while 658 advanced and 86 remained unchanged.

"The domestic market saw a sharp and abrupt sell-off in the second half, despite the positive trend in global peers. This is attributable to profit booking from the recent sharp rally stretching valuations of mid- and small-cap stocks. The recent uptick in crude prices prompted investors to book profits," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

The BSE benchmark had climbed 122.10 points or 0.17 per cent to settle at 71,437.19 points on Tuesday, 19 December. The Nifty had gained 34.45 points or 0.16 per cent to 21,453.10 points.