A view of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai.
Equity investors lost nearly Rs 3 lakh crore on Monday as the benchmark index took a deep dive. Continuing their downtrend from the morning session, the benchmark Sensex and Nifty indices declined nearly 2 per cent in the afternoon.
The Nifty later improved marginally to close at 17,173.65 or 1.73%, down from its previous close of 17,475.65 on Wednesday. The Sensex closed down 1,172.19 points or 2.01% from its previous close of 58,338.93.
Stock markets remained closed on Thursday and Friday on account of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti/ Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday.
The fresh spurt in global crude oil prices coupled with an increase in inflation has weighed on investor sentiment. Consumer price index or retail inflation rose sharply to 6.95 per cent in March, above the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance band of 6 per cent for three consecutive months.
Also, in the fourth quarter, the earnings of HDFC Bank and Infosys fell below the market expectations, reducing investor confidence. Shares of Infosys fell over 7% to Rs 1,622 on the NSE and Rs 1,623 on the BSE, after its Q4FY22 results came in lower than expected. HDFC Bank too fared poorly, falling over 4.50 per cent to trade below Rs 1,400 per share on the NSE and BSE.
Other leading drags on the Sensex pack were HDFC (down 4.83%), TCS (down 3.63%), Tech Mahindra (down 4.69%), Wipro (down 3.67%), HCL Tech (down 1.99%). SBI (down 1.57%) and Bharti Airtel (down 1.47%). NTPC and Tata Steel were the top gainers. NTPC gained 6.11% and Tata Steel 1.51% on the news of the share split.
Shares of large companies fell 5 per cent and 7 per cent on the NSE. Apart from Infosys, HDFC Bank (4.74%) and HDFC (4.83%), Apollo Hospitals (4%), Tech Mahindra (4.67%), Wipro (3.68%), TCS (3.66%), HCL Tech (2.08%) and SBI (1.58%).