Bears tighten grip on Dalal Street | Investors lose Rs 9.56 lakh crore in four-day turmoil

The market remained under pressure for the fourth consecutive session on March 14 as bears further tightened their control over Dalal Street, tracking consistent correction in global counterparts despite a plan to backstop depositors in Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the Uinited States. As a result, the markets saw wealth erosion of around Rs 9.56 lakh crore in four days.

The Nifty 50 plunged 111 points to 17,043, while the BSE Sensex dropped 338 points to 57,900, taking the total loss to around 2,400 points in four straight sessions.

Both the benchmark indices traded below their 200-day simple moving average (SMA) as well as 200-day exponential moving average (EMA), with above average volumes on Tuesday.

Most sectors, barring capital goods, were down in trade. The broader markets also traded in line with benchmarks on negative breadth. The BSE Midcap index was down half a percent and Smallcap index fell eight-tenth of a percent.

About two shares declined for every rising share on the BSE.

“What we are witnessing now is an overreaction on the downside. Concerns of a financial contagion are overdone,” VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

With the consistent fall in equity markets, investors have lost about Rs 9.64 lakh crore of wealth, as the BSE market capitalisation dropped to Rs 256.59 lakh crore, from Rs 266.24 lakh crore on March 8.

Tuesday saw erosion of around Rs 1.96 lakh crore of BSE market capitalisation, while during the current week, the market correction wiped out around Rs 6.35 lakh crore of market cap.

On the global front, Asian counterparts reeled under pressure, following the fall in US equities overnight for the fifth day in a row, as investors continued to worry about the turmoil in the US banking space, including failure of SVB, which was largely supported by deposits from start-ups.

Japan’s Nikkei, South Korea’s Kospi and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed with more than 2 percent losses, while Australia’s ASX 200 was down 1.4 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite declined seven-tenth of a percent.
European markets were mixed in trade at the time of writing this article.

“The selling continued while the degree of ambiguity over the US banks reduced due to supportive measures announced by the US Federal Reserve. The underlying issue of the market is high interest rates, which will continue to wreak havoc in the world economy,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Back home, on the BSE, a total 255 stocks hit the lower circuit, against 138 that hit the upper circuit. While 338 stocks touched 52-week lows, 71 stocks hit 52-week highs.

Out of the 338 stocks that hit 52-week lows, 71 are ‘A’ group stocks, which are most liquid and highly traded counters. This included Aarti Drugs, Aditya Birla Fashion, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, Balaji Amines, Bandhan Bank, Biocon, Blue Dart, Cipla, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals, Emami, Divis Laboratories, Greaves Cotton, HDFC Life Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Ipca Labs, Dr Lal PathLabs, Mphasis, Muthoot Finance, Page Industries, Pfizer, Rossari Biotech, Sunteck Realty, and Tata Consumer Products.

Given it is a short-term risk, experts advised long-term investors to buy quality stocks in the current correction, as a number of pain points will get ironed out over time.

“Investors can wait for this storm to pass. But long-term investors with higher risk appetite can certainly slowly accumulate high-quality stocks, particularly in the domestic economy-facing segments like banking and capital goods,” VK Vijayakumar said.

Vinod Nair feels the disruptive development in US banks and slowing economy have created a precursor to possible peaking of yields in the near future. This is supported by a change in monetary policy from hawkish to neutral, which will diminish the worries of long-term investors.

The US 10-year treasury yields traded around 3.61 percent, down from 3.99 percent on March 8, while during the same period, the US Dollar index traded around 103.85 levels, down from 105.66 levels on March 8.

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