Indian investors lose ₹5 lakh crore as the coronavirus sweeps over the stock market

• Indian investors have lost nearly ₹5 lakh crore in the Indian stock market as it plummets under the aftershock of the coronavirus outbreak.
• The BSE Sensex is down by 1,248 points and the NSE Nifty 50 has plunged by 363 points.
• Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Bajaj Finance are among the worst hit in the stock market.

Investors have lost nearly ₹5 lakh crore as the Indian stock market nose-dived on fears of extending pandemic of Coronavirus, today (February 28). Most of the stocks on BSE Sensex are trading in the red and, overall, the market is down by 1,248 points.

The impact of the coronavirus has investors scrambling to hit the sell button on some of the top stocks in the Indian economy. Making matters worse, the outbreak of the virus currently shows no signs of slowing down. Researchers now fear a global recession as the pandemic spreads to Italy, Iran and more.

It’s raining red in the NSE Nifty 50 as well as it plunged by 363 points. The individual sectoral indices were in the red as well with the Nifty Bank index falling by over 1,000 points. The Nifty Metal index is headed for its biggest weekly fall since October 2008, when the global financial crisis was at its peak.

“From extreme calmness to extreme pessimism, D-Street is also the victim of the virus outbreak in other countries,” said Umesh Mehta, head of research from Samco Securities.

“However, when the entire world is blaming the coronavirus for the fall, we feel that valuations have a big part to play in this bearishness,” he added.

According to PTI, the volatile equity market wiped out ₹4.7 lakh crore worth of investor wealth and the total market capitalisation dropped to ₹148 lakh crore from ₹152 lakh crore at market closing on Thursday.

Here’s a look at the biggest losers on the BSE Sensex today:


Stocks like SBI Gold ETF, Gillette India, Hexaware Tech, Jubilant Industries and Baja Auto are concurrent losers having lost value consecutively over the last three days.

The impact of the coronavirus on the Indian stock market is indicative of how the global market might be headed for turbulent waters as coronavirus continues to spread. The outbreak is already affected sectors associated with travel and tourism as travellers cancelled their flights to countries with reported infections. Moreso, global events like One Mobile Congress were cancelled and Facebook also cancelled its annual developers meet to be held in May.

Shares of airlines companies have already taken a 10% plunge. Interglobe Aviation, IndiGo’s parent company, is down by 9.99% while SpiceJet fell by 6.06%. Rating agency ICRA notes that the outlook for airline stocks continues to look bleak in view of the outbreak.