Sensex tanks 1,017 points; investors lose over Rs 5 lakh crore

Mumbai, Sep 6 (IANS) Indian benchmark indices closed in the deep red on Friday as investors remained jittery ahead of an important US jobs report that could determine the speed and size of US Fed rate cut in the coming days.

At closing, the Sensex was down 1,017 points or 1.24 per cent at 81,183 and Nifty was down 292 points or 1.17 per cent at 24,852.

Due to a sharp fall, the market cap of all listed firms on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) declined by nearly Rs 5.3 lakh crore to Rs 460.04 lakh crore. On Thursday it was Rs 465.3 lakh crore.

In the Sensex pack, SBI, ICICI Bank, NTPC, HCL Tech, Reliance, Tata Motors, ITC, Axis Bank, Infosys, L&T, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Ultratech Cement and Wipro fell the most.

Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, JSW Steel and HUL contributed the most. Selling was seen in all sectors.

Auto, PSU banks, fin service, media, energy, private banks, infra, realty and FMCG indices were the top losers.

Nifty midcap 100 index was down 946 points or 1.59 per cent at 58,501 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was down 244 points or 1.25 per cent at 19,276.

Santosh Meena, Head of Research at Swastika Investmart said, "Indian markets witnessed a surprising decline today after consolidating at all-time highs. One key factor could be weaker job data from the US, fueling concerns about a potential global economic slowdown."

"Additionally, India's weight in the MSCI Emerging Markets index has surpassed China’s, reaching its highest level. This raises the risk of a strategic reduction in weight allocation, especially given India's relatively high valuations," Meena said.

The Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned net sellers on September 5 as they sold equities worth Rs 688 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 2,970 crore on the same day.