Amid the counting of results for the Lok Sabha polls on Tuesday, India’s equity market fell sharply as soon as the bell rang at 9.15 am.
This came as early trends showed that the opposition INDIA bloc’s seat tally could be ahead of what exit polls had predicted, although the BJP-led NDA alliance was still in the lead.
The frontline indices -- BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- were down by 5% each on Tuesday after surging more than 3% each on Monday.
The Sensex fell more than 4,000 points to hit a low of 72,337 while the Nifty plummeted 1,200 points to hit a low of 22,000. In the Sensex pack, Powergrid, NTPC and SBI were trading with a cut of 12-14%. Meanwhile, Adani Group stocks crashed up to 20% while Reliance Industries was down more than 5%.
The bear grip is so tight that Rs 26 lakh crore was wiped out from the market. The market capitalisation of all BSE firms came down to Rs 400 lakh crore on Tuesday from Rs 426 crore on Monday.
The BSE PSU index was down by more than 5% with all its constituents trading in red. Bank of Baroda, GAIL and REC stocks were down by 7% each.
The Nifty PSU Bank was down by 5.5% at 7,568. Shares of Bank of Baroda, IndianBank, Central Bank, Canara Bank and PNB were down by 5-7%.
Except for Nifty pharma and Nifty FMCG, all other Nifty sectoral indices were in the red.
"The steep fall is due to the results so far falling short of the exit polls which the market had discounted yesterday. If the BJP doesn’t get a majority on its own there will be disappointment and this is getting reflected in the market. Also, it is possible that Modi 3.0 may not be as reform-oriented as the market expected and may turn more welfare- oriented. This is getting reflected in the strength in FMCG stocks," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.