India’s equity investors became poorer by Rs 9.69 lakh crore in two days as Dalal Street ended the past two sessions in red, with BSE Sensex dropping by over 1500 points.This sharp plunge was driven by the impact of higher US tariffs on Indian goods and sustained foreign fund withdrawals.An additional 25% tariff from the United States took effect on Wednesday, taking the overall levy on Indian exports to 50%. The move dealt a blow to investor confidence, adding to already fragile market sentiment.The BSE Sensex dropped 705.97 points, or 0.87%, to close at 80,080.57 on Thursday. Earlier in the day, it had slipped 773.52 points, or 0.95%, to 80,013.02. In two consecutive sessions, the index has shed 1,555.34 points, or 1.90%.The market value of companies listed on the BSE has fallen by Rs 9,69,740.79 crore, leaving the overall capitalisation at Rs 4,45,17,222.66 crore ($5.08 trillion).“Domestic equities ended lower as pessimism took hold following the implementation of tariffs on Indian goods, dampening investor sentiments, ” Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments Limited told PTI.“While the cotton import duty exemption briefly lifted hopes of policy support to counter tariff impacts, triggering a short-lived intra-day recovery, investor mood remained fragile, with large caps declining and mid and small caps underperforming amid risk-off sentiment,” Nair further added.Trading was closed on Wednesday for Ganesh Chaturthi, adding to the compressed impact across two sessions.Among the Sensex constituents, HCL Tech, Infosys, Power Grid, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank led the losses. In contrast, Titan, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti and Axis Bank ended in positive territory, PTI reported.The midcap index dropped 1.09%, while the smallcap gauge was down 0.96%. Sector-wise, services recorded the steepest fall at 2.27%, followed by telecommunication (1.73%), IT (1.68%), BSE Focused IT (1.59%), tech (1.59%), realty (1.47%) and utilities (1.26%). Consumer Durables was the only gainer.On the BSE, 2,651 stocks declined, 1,458 advanced and 149 remained unchanged.
