The market capitalisation of BSE listed firms slipped below Rs 400 lakh crore mark on Tuesday after continuous foreign fund outflows and lower than expected corporate earnings dampened investor sentiments.
Equity markets ended the day with modest losses, blue chip indices like Sensex and Nifty-50, reflected slight declines amid ongoing volatility in global and domestic markets.
Prashanth Tapse, senior vice president of research at Mehta Equities, told news agency PTI that while gains in sectors like IT, power, oil and gas and metal stocks managed to offset much of the decline, small-cap stocks continued to struggle due to costly valuations and a gloomy earnings season. He added that this situation led to further pressure on the smaller stocks in particular.
IndusInd Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, UltraTech Cement, Tata Consultancy Services, ITC, Tata Motors, and Sun Pharma emerged as the biggest losers in the Sensex pack. On the other hand, NTPC, Tech Mahindra, Zomato, Power Grid, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and HCL Tech were some of the notable gainers.
Market expert Ameya Ranadive, senior technical analyst at StoxBox, highlighted that the decline was majorly driven by weaker earnings and a continuous outflow of foreign capital, which further weakened market enthusiasm.
The BSE small-cap index dropped 1.71 per cent, while the mid-cap index lowered 0.19 per cent.
Sectoral performances were mixed, with industrials, consumer durables, telecommunications, capital goods, and auto stocks all posting losses. Meanwhile, utilities, IT, oil & gas, power, and energy sectors saw positive movement, with utilities climbing 1.03 per cent and IT rising 0.86 per cent.
Overall, 2,918 stocks ended in the red, while 1,032 advanced and 114 remained unchanged on the BSE.