The carnage in the stock market on Thursday made Dalal Street investors poorer by over Rs 3 lakh crore, where the benchmark Sensex tumbled by more than 800 points, amid a massive sell-off in banking shares and worries over global economic slowdown.
The Sensex on Thursday closed 807.07 points down at 22,951.83 points -- the lowest closing level for the index since May 8, 2014.
Intra-day, it slumped 849.78 points to 22,909.1 -- its 52-week low.
This was also the fourth straight session of losses for the index which has fallen by 1,665 points.
Following the extreme weakness in stocks, the market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed firms plunged by Rs 3.18 lakh crore to Rs 86,30,930 crore.
So far this year, the market valuation of BSE-listed companies has come down sharply by Rs 14 lakh crore from Rs 1,00,37,734 crore on December 31, 2015.
Markets fell steeply on the back of continuing concerns about a global slowdown and consequent impact on the financial sector.
"Quarterly results declared over the past few days have also not met up to the muted expectations and that also impacted sentiments," said Dipen Shah, Senior Vice-President & Head of Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.
Going ahead, global concerns will remain at centre-stage and will likely dictate market sentiments, he added.
Following today's fall, the Sensex has come off over 23 percent from its all-time peak of 30,024 points recorded on March 4, 2015.
It was a sea of red at the BSE Sensex, where 28 out of the 30-bluechip scrips suffered losses.
Adani Ports, BHEL, Tata Motors, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Steel were the top losers.
Cipla and Dr Reddys Lab, however, ended with mild gains.
"Bears tightened their grip across the globe. Relentless selling in the stock market is coming from redemption pressures, crude slumping to multi-year lows, depreciating rupee against dollar and disappointing earnings," said Gaurav Jain, Director, Hem Securities.
At the BSE, 2,359 stocks declined, while only 324 advanced. The prices of 96 stocks remained unchanged.
"The colour of the day was red as the selling rout of the previous 3 sessions intensified today, pushing key benchmark indices in India to trade at 21 month lows," said Shreyash Devalkar, Fund Manager of Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.
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