D-Street's worst day in 7 months as investors lost Rs 1,850 crore per minute

NEW DELHI: Stock market bulls, who had got accustomed to Sensex increasing everyday, got an eye-opening jolt on a manic Monday that saw destruction of Rs 6.89 lakh crore of investor wealth--nearly Rs 1,850 crore per minute.

The primary trigger behind the massacre on Dalal Street was a new much potent strain of coronavirus discovered in the UK. However, the stage was set for it for quite some time as the market had rallied too much, too fast, said some analysts.

"The new variant of the novel coronavirus in the UK spooked markets as we witnessed intense selling in pivotal throughout afternoon trade. While the street was bracing for a correction this week after a sharp up move, the sheer velocity of the fall across broader markets took the bulls by surprise as practically none of the key indices constituents were in the green today," said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

The 30-share pack Sensex crashed 1,406.73 points, down 3 per cent. In percentage terms, it was its biggest fall in seven months. Its broader peer NSE Nifty plunged 432.15 points or 3.14 per cent to 13,328.40.

Market at a glance:

• India VIX, barometer of volatility, surges over nearly 25% to 23.19
• All Nifty stocks close in the red; all sectoral indices end with cuts
• Airline stocks crash up to 10% after govt bans flights from London
• ONGC, Tata Motors top bluechip losers, plunge over 9%
• Nearly 500 stocks hit lower circuit in BSE, 49 at 52-week lows

Among Nifty stocks, there were no gainers but plenty of losers. Tata Motors, which stands to lose in case of no-deal Brexit, plunged nearly 10 per cent. ONGC, GAIL, IndusInd Bank, Hindalco Industries, Indian Oil and BPCL were other major losers.

Broader market indices also took a beating, underperforming their headline peers. Nifty Smallcap tanked 5.03 per cent, while Nifty Midcap slumped 4.81 per cent. Nifty 500, the broadest index on NSE, declined 3.44 per cent.

Persistent Systems, Heidelberg Cement, Blue Star, Mphasis and Dr Lalpath Labs were only gainers in mid and small cap indices, registering gains in the range of 0-3 per cent.

SpiceJet, Graphite India, Equitas Holdings, Indiabulls Housing Finance, BHEL and Tata Power were top losers from broader market space, all of them falling nearly 10 per cent at the end of the day.
All sectoral indices bled profusely. Nifty PSU Bank plunged 6.93 per cent. Nifty Media, Nifty Realty and Nifty Metal were among those that fell over 5 per cent. Nifty IT fell the least at 1.77 per cent.

Market breadth was in favour of losers as 592 stocks ended in the green, while 2,433 names settled with cuts. As many as 224 securities hit 52-week highs, mostly from the smallcap space. Meanwhile, 49 names hit 52-week lows, mostly from the microcap space. About 259 stocks hit upper circuit limits and 499 lower circuit limits.

European shares were trading with sharp cuts. Germany’s DAX was down 3.72 per cent, while France’s CAC dipped 3.60 per cent. FTSE was down 2.91 per cent. In Asia, markets closed mixed. Thailand’s Set Composite was the worst performer, down 5.44 per cent. Hang Seng, Nikkei, and Strait Times were other losers. Indonesian markets were the biggest gainers.