Investors lost over Rs 8 lakh crore in trade today as Sensex and Nifty came under selling pressure amid record surge in coronavirus cases in India. Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell by Rs 8.13 lakh crore after investor wealth declined to Rs 201.50 lakh crore.
On April 9, market wealth of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 209.63 lakh crore. India VIX , the Indian market's volatility gauge, rose 14.35% to 22.63on Monday, signalling heightened negative sentiment on Sensex and Nifty.
Sensex lost 1,639 points to 47,951 and Nifty slipped 493 points to 14,341 . Market breadth was negative with 436 stocks rising against 2,291 shares falling on BSE. 174 stocks were unchanged.
India reported 1,69,899 cases of COVID-19 as of 11.30 p.m on April 11, the highest single-day rise in cases since pandemic hit India last year . As many as 904 deaths were also recorded on the day. This is the second straight day the country reported more than 1.5 lakh new cases.
Sensex slips 1,400 points amid record Covid-19 cases, prospects of Maharashtra lockdown
The prospects of a second full-fledged lockdown in Maharashtra wrecked investor sentiment. Maharashtra reported its highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases with 63,294 fresh cases in 24 hours on Sunday. Almost 10,000 of these were from the state capital Mumbai. There are now 5,65,500 active cases in Maharashtra. Amid the Covid surge, the Maharashtra government is yet to take a final decision on whether the state will go into a complete lockdown to control the spread of the virus.
"Since the second wave of the pandemic is turning out worse than expected, there is profound uncertainty about its impact on the economy and the markets. Since the situation is the worst in economically significant Maharashtra, this can impact the market's assumption of around 11 per cent GDP growth and above 30 per cent earnings growth," says Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
Stocks in news: TCS, Infosys, Balrampur Chini Mills, Barbeque Nation and more