Four days of market slump wipes out Rs 24.69 lakh cr of investors' wealth
New Delhi, Jan 13: Investors lost Rs 24.69 lakh crore in market valuation in the last four days of severe drubbing in the equity market.
Spike in global crude prices, unabated foreign fund outflows, a strong US jobs data diminishing early rate cut expectations, and the rupee logging its steepest single-day fall in nearly two years dampened investors' sentiment.
The BSE Sensex tanked 1,869.1 points, or 2.39 per cent, in the past four trading sessions.
Falling for the fourth straight session on Friday, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex tumbled 1,048.90 points, or 1.36 per cent, to finally settle at 76,330.01. During the day, it plunged 1,129.19 points, or 1.45 per cent, to 76,249.72.
The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms eroded by Rs 24,69,243.3 crore to Rs 4,17,05,906.74 crore (USD 4.82 trillion) in four days. With Monday's sharp fall in equities, the market cap of BSE-listed firms dived below the USD 5-trillion mark.
On Monday alone, investors' wealth dropped Rs 12.61 lakh crore.
"Continued foreign institutional investor selling crossed Rs 20,000 crore this month, contributing to the negative sentiments. Indian rupee touched a fresh low against the dollar during the session, pressured by stronger-than-expected US non-farm payrolls data which further dampened the sentiment, resulting in a firm dollar index.
"Meanwhile, oil prices hit their highest level in over three months amid expanded US sanctions disrupting Russian crude supplies, further adding to global uncertainties," Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said.
From the 30-share blue-chip pack, Zomato cracked over 6.50 per cent. Power Grid, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, NTPC, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Asian Paints, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, and Sun Pharma were the other major laggards.
In contrast, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Hindustan Unilever, and IndusInd Bank were the gainers.
"US imposing sanctions on Russian oil exports pushed the rupee to a fresh low against the dollar, which in turn triggered massive correction in domestic equity markets as overseas investors continued to desert the local share market. Wide-spread selling across the sectors fuelled along with massive exits in mid and smallcap stocks further worsened the sentiment.
"Rising crude oil prices would raise concerns of a spike in domestic inflation, which could further delay any rate cut hopes from the RBI in the near to medium term," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1.43 per cent to USD 80.90 a barrel.
As many as 3,562 stocks declined, while 555 advanced and 131 remained unchanged on the BSE.
Also, 508 stocks hit their 52-week lows while 120 stocks reached the one-year high level.
The BSE midcap gauge dropped 4.17 per cent, and smallcap index tanked 4.14 per cent.
All BSE sectoral indices ended lower. Realty slumped 6.59 per cent, utilities (4.38 per cent), services (4.35 per cent), power (4.23 per cent), industrials (4.09 per cent), consumer discretionary (4.04 per cent), consumer durables (3.96 per cent), and commodities (3.69 per cent).
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Over 17,000 people went missing in Delhi in 2024: NCRB
New Delhi (PTI): A total of 23,058 people, comprising 9,482 men and 13,576 women, were reported missing in Delhi in 2024, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Of the total, 5,491 were children below the age of 18 — 1,571 boys, 3,920 girls.
The city recorded 17,567 fresh adult missing persons cases in 2024, comprising 7,911 men and 9,656 women.
According to the NCRB data, released on Wednesday, 14,637 men, 18,238 women and six transgender persons were still missing from previous years.
At the latest count, in 2024, Delhi had a total of 55,939 missing persons cases — 24,119 men, 31,814 women and six transgender persons.
In 2024, police traced or collected 28,392 missing persons, including 12,182 men, 16,208 women and two transgender persons.
Only half of the men and half of the women who went missing could be traced.
A total of 27,547 missing persons – 11,937 men, 15,606 women, four transgender persons — were yet to be untraced by the end of the year, the data showed.
The data also revealed that 5,352 children from previous years remained untraced at the beginning of 2024.
The number of still missing boys was 1,621, and the number of missing girls was 3,729. Two transgender children were yet to be found.
After adding the pending cases from previous years, the total number of missing children cases handled in 2024 rose to 10,843.
The police traced or recovered 6,762 missing children — 2,030 boys, 4,732 girls.
The recovery rate stood at 63.6 per cent for boys and 61.9 per cent for girls, while no transgender child was traced.
By the end of 2024, a total of 4,081 children remained untraced, 1,162 of them boys, 2,917 girls, and two transgender children.
