The Indian stock market experienced a tumultuous morning on Tuesday, with a sharp selloff erasing approximately Rs 20 lakh crore from investors’ wealth within the first 20 minutes of trading.
This massive loss came as early vote-counting trends for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leading, but with an unclear margin of victory.
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) saw its overall market capitalisation plummet to nearly Rs 406 lakh crore by 9:35 am, down from Rs 426 lakh crore at the previous close. The benchmark indices were already indicating trouble during the pre-open session. The Sensex fell by 183 points, or 0.24%, to 76,285.78, and the Nifty was down by 84.40 points, or 0.36%, to 23,179.50.
As the markets opened, the situation worsened dramatically. The Sensex shed 1,708.54 points, or 2.23%, to 74,760.24, while the Nifty dropped by 488.55 points, or 2.1%, to 22,775.35. As the day moved forward, Sensex was seen trading with cuts of 1,654 points of 2.16% at 74,814 as of 10 am. Whereas, Nifty shed 509 points or 1.19% at 22,754 at the same time. The selloff was widespread, affecting almost all sectors and leading to a significant downturn in most stocks. On the BSE Sensex, only three stocks- Sun Pharma, Nestle India, and Hindustan Unilever- remained in the green. In contrast, major names like NTPC, State Bank of India (SBI), Power Grid Corporation, Larsen & Toubro, and HDFC Bank were among the top laggards.
