MANIC MONDAY Global rout batters stocks

 

 

 

STOCK markets crashed nearly 3 per cent on Monday due to across-the-board selling in banking, IT, metal and oil & gas shares following a global equity rout, wiping out more than Rs 15 lakh crore of investor money in a single day. The 30-share BSE Sensex plummeted 2,222.55 points or 2.74 per cent to settle at over a month’s low of 78,759.40, marking its worst single-day retreat since June 4, 2024. During the day, the index tanked 2,686.09 points or 3.31 per cent to 78,295.86. The NSE Nifty slumped 662.10 points or 2.68 per cent to settle at more than a month’s low of 24,055.60. During the day, it tumbled 824 points or 3.33 per cent to 23,893.70. Nifty also saw its worst single-day fall since June 4, 2024, when markets crashed more than 5 per cent due to general election results. Sensex and Nifty had declined more than 1 per cent in the previous session on Friday. In two sessions to Monday, the key indices have corrected around 4 per cent. Investors lost more than Rs 15 lakh crore in the market crash as the total valuation of BSE-listed companies dropped to Rs 441.84 lakh crore on Monday.

 

Investors lost Rs 4.46 lakh crore on Friday, taking the total losses in two days to more than Rs 19 lakh crore. In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge dropped 4.21 per cent and midcap index plummeted 3.60 per cent. An over 12 per cent plunge in Japan’s Nikkei and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East dented market sentiment, analysts said. In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled sharply lower. Japan’s benchmark stock index plunged 12.4 per cent on Monday, compounding a global market rout set off by investor concerns that the US economy could be headed for recession. A report on Friday showing hiring by US employers slowed last month by much more than expected convulsed financial markets, vanquishing the euphoria that had taken the Nikkei 225 to all-time highs of over 42,000 in recent weeks. On Monday, the Nikkei closed down 4,451.28 points at 31,458.42. It had dropped 5.8 per cent on Friday, making this its worst two-day decline ever. Its worst single-day rout was a plunge of 3,836 points, or 14.9 per cent, on October 19, 1987, a global markets crash that was dubbed “Black Monday”.