Investors poorer by Rs 2.7 trillion

Investors lost over Rs 2,70,000 crore (Rs 2.7 trillion) after the stock market continued its downward journey for the second straight day with a total loss of over 1,000 points in the benchmark Sensex, while the country's 30 largestblue chip firms accounted for nearly half the loss.

The total wealth, measured in terms of market capitalisation of all the listed companies, today dropped to 56,01,150 crore (Rs 56.01 trillion), as against 58,71,400 crore (Rs 58.71 trillion) before the freefall began on the bourses yesterday.

While the loss stood at about Rs 1,01,000 crore (Rs 1.01 trillion) on Wednesday, about Rs 1,70,000 crore (Rs 1.7 trillion) was further eroded from the investors' kitty in today's plunge when the Sensex recorded its second biggest single-day gain of 717 points.

On Wednesday, the Sensex had dropped by over 300 points, although it recovered a significant part of its intra-day loss of over 1,700 points.

The 30-Sensex companies together have lost close to Rs 1,40,000 crore (Rs 1.4 trillion) in past two days, including a loss of about Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) in today's fall.

The ten most valued companies together lost close to Rs 84,000 crore (Rs 840 billion) of market value today, led by the country's most valued firm RIL's loss of over Rs 32,000 crore (Rs 320 billion).

Today's plunge also saw the market cap of Bharti Airtel, the country's most valued telecom firm, plunging below Rs 2 trillion mark. It's market value dropped to Rs 1,93,452 crore (Rs 1.93 trillion) from over Rs 2,09,500 crore  (Rs 2.09 trillion)

State-owned MMTC and National Mineral Development Corp were the only two companies in the top ten list in terms of market capitalisation that gained market value of close to Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) each today.

ONGC lost about Rs 7,800 crore (Rs 78 billion), Bharti Airtel lost over Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion), NTPC shed over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion), DLF about Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion), while Reliance Communications and BHEL saw a drop of about Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) each.

Among Sensex companies, TCS, Wipro, Cipla, Satyam Computers, Dr Reddy's, Hindustan Unilever and Ranbaxy were only seven companies that gained today.

ACC, Reliance Energy, SBI, Bharti, ICICI Bank, NTPC, Hindalco, HDFC Bank, BHEL, L&T, RIL, Tata Steel and Reliance Comm were the major losers.

Besides, ONGC, Grasim, Tata Motors, Ambuja Cements, M&M, Maruti and Bajaj Auto also lost value.