Bloodbath on Dalal Street erodes nearly Rs 5 trillion investor wealth

Domestic investor wealth plummeted by nearly Rs 5 trillion on Friday as equity markets crashed tracking global equity selloff amid rising uncertainty over the economic impact of coronavirus outbreak.

Market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed companies saw a massive decline after the 30-share index sank 1,100.27 points, or 2.77 per cent, to 38,645.39, and the NSE Nifty cracked 329.50 points, or 2.83 per cent, to 11,303.80.

The carnage in the equity market wiped out investor wealth worth Rs 465,915.58 crore, taking the total m-cap to Rs 1,47,74,108.50 crore on the BSE.

The m-cap of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 1,52,40,024.08 crore at the end of trading on Thursday.

All Sensex components were trading in the red, led by losses in Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Mahindra and Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, HCL Tech and Reliance Industries.

Traders said investor sentiments also remained fragile amid incessant foreign fund outflows. On a net basis, foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 3,127.36 crore on Thursday, data available with stock exchanges showed.

Foreign investors have sold equities worth Rs 9,389 crore till Thursday, provisional data on the stock exchanges showed.

On the BSE, 1,602 scrips declined, while 183 advanced and 62 remained unchanged.

In the broader market, the BSE SmallCap index fell 3.45 per cent, while BSE MidCap index declined 3.53 per cent.

Eight of 10 most-valued firms add Rs 1.13 trillion in m-cap; TCS leads

Eight of the 10 most valued domestic companies together added a whopping Rs 1.13 trillion in market valuation last week, with IT major TCS stealing the show.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys and SBI were the other companies in the top 10 list which saw gains in their market capitalisation (m-cap) for the week ended Friday. Only Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and ITC finished with losses.

The m-cap of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) surged Rs 56,604.72 crore to stand at Rs 8,33,986.26 crore.

HDFC Bank's valuation zoomed Rs 18,475.04 crore to Rs 7,09,932.25 crore and that of RIL jumped Rs 10,744.95 crore to Rs 10,13,892.21 crore.

Eight of 10 most-valued firms add Rs 1.13 trillion in m-cap; TCS leads

The market cap of HDFC climbed Rs 8,962.42 crore to Rs 4,15,667.65 crore and that of Infosys rose by Rs 8,836.3 crore to reach Rs 3,11,719.03 crore.

ICICI Bank's valuation spurted Rs 5,491.87 crore to Rs 3,53,043.84 crore and of SBI went up by Rs 4,596.17 crore to Rs 3,01,518 crore.

Kotak Mahindra Bank added Rs 253.14 crore to its m-cap to reach Rs 3,23,489.31 crore.

In contrast, the market cap of HUL dropped Rs 12,599.2 crore to Rs 4,21,510.56 crore and that of ITC fell Rs 491.58 crore to Rs 2,96,479.45 crore.

In the list of top-10 firms by market valuation, RIL retained its numero uno position, followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, HUL, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, State Bank of India (SBI) and ITC.

During the week, the Sensex rose 671.83 points or 1.63 per cent.

Voda Idea losses spill over to other AB Birla group firms; m-cap down 6.2%

The continued losses at Vodafone Idea are spilling over into other AB Birla group firms, led by Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla. The combined m-cap of the AB Birla group firms was down 6.2 per cent on Monday, led by losses at Vodafone Idea. In all, group firms lost nearly Rs 18,000 crore m-cap on Monday. The telecom major has lost 44.3 per cent of its m-cap in July, wiping out most of the gains it made after it raised Rs 25,000 crore by way of a rights issue in May this year.

Vodafone Idea now has a m-cap of Rs 19,454 crore against Rs 39.942 crore at end of last month.

The biggest surprise for the analysts was, however, a sharp 9 per cent fall in Grasim Industries stock price, the flagship company and the main operating and holding company for the AB group. It was the worst fall in Grasim share price in the last two years, raising fears about a spill-over effect from Vodafone Idea's poor performance. Grasim is the single largest promoter shareholder of Vodafone Idea with 11.55 per cent stake in the company at the end of June 30. In all, Birla's owned 27.18 per cent stake in the telecom joint venture.

Grasim also owns a majority stake in UltraTech Cement, Aditya Birla Capital and Aditya Birla Money. Besides, the company is a minority shareholder in Hindalco Industries and Aditya Birla Fashion, other two key AB Birla group companies.

Analysts expect a reduction in Grasim's financial flexibility if it is forced to make an incremental equity investment in Vodafone Idea to compensate for its losses as it did in the recent past. The mobile operator reported a net loss of Rs 4,873.9 crore during April-June 2019 quarter, its tenth loss in the last 11-quarters.

The continued losses in the mobile venture has led to a large erosion in the market value of Grasim equity investment in Vodafone Idea. According to Capitaline database, Grasim's total equity investment worth Rs 7,311 crore (at book-value) in the telecom venture will now only fetch a value Rs 716 crore based on Vodafone Idea current share price.