Big shock! Investors turn poorer by Rs 5.27 lakh crore as Adani group stocks drag Sensex down

New Delhi: Indian investors lost a whopping Rs 5.27 lakh crore in market investments on Thursday as a result of a plunge led by the decline in Adani Group stocks. The Sensex was down 422.59 points or 0.54 per cent to 77,155.79, leading to a Rs 5,27,767.57 crore decline in its market capitalisation to Rs 4,25,38,908.01 crore ($5.04 trillion).

While Adani Ports was down 13.53 per cent, Adani Enterprises, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Ports and Adani Green Energy, also plunged on Thursday. Among the Sensex pack, NTPC, State Bank of India, and ITC were the top losers. Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, and Tata Consultancy Services were the top gainers on the 30-share Sensex.

Adani Green Energy cancelled a $600 million bond sale in the aftermath of the bribery allegations made by the US SEC and charges filed in a US district court.

The Sensex reversed its gains from Tuesday, which were achieved after 4 straight sessions of market decline. However, the market plunged on Thursday owing to reports of a US SEC indictment of the Adani Group chairman, his nephew Sagar Adani and other individuals related to Adani Group. “Besides the news, most of the Asian and European markets were in negative territories which also weighed on the sentiment,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities.

FIIs continued to offload stocks, having sold Rs 3,411.73 crore on Tuesday, according to stock market data. Rising tensions in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the Adani group controversy spooked markets. However, FII selloff moderated on Thursday, according to Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Overall, 2,736 stocks were in red, while 1,237 closed in green, as 92 shares closed flat on the BSE on Thursday. The BSE smallcap and midcap indices closed 0.67 per cent and 0.37 per cent lower, respectively. Services, utilities, commodities, oil & gas, power and auto sectors closed in red on Thursday, while IT, realty and teck sectors closed in green, according to exchange data.