Red alert: Investors lose Rs 34 lakh crores

MUMBAI: Two weeks into the war in West Asia, investors in India have lost a staggering Rs 34 lakh crore worth of wealth due to the strong selloff in the stock market.

The turmoil has also shaved off a little over 5,250 points or 6.5% from the sensex, as foreign funds have doubled down on their selling in the domestic market.

The ongoing war has resulted in the price of crude oil surpassing the $100/barrel mark, a multi-year high. It has also weakened the rupee to a historic low and forced foreign funds to take money out of India at a pace not seen in the last 14 months.

In Friday’s market, the sensex started on a weak note with the index down nearly 500 points. It slid through the session to fall to an intra-day low at 74,455 points and closed just a tad above that level, at 74,564 points, down 1,471 points or 1.9%. On NSE, Nifty too took a similar path to close at 23,151 points, down 488 points or 2.1%.

The day’s slide came on back of the price of crude oil—India’s biggest import item—trading above the psychologically important $100/ barrel mark. The rupee sank to a record low of 92.48 against the dollar.

The day’s slide in the market was led by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). At close of session, foreign investors had net sold stocks worth Rs 10,717 crore, the biggest single-session net outflow by foreign funds since Feb 28, 2025, ETIG data showed.

On Friday, there were also talks of margin-related selling after several days of slide. Often, speculators borrow money to take positions in stocks against collateral, part of which is in stocks. If the value of collateralised stocks fall below a certain pre-set level, the lenders can sell off those stocks. In a falling market, such margin-based selling can aggravate the selling. “There were MTF (margin trade finance)-related selling in Friday’s session,” said people in the know.

“In addition, given the volatile geopolitical situation, traders were not willing to carry their positions through the weekend and liquidated that which pushed stock prices further down,” the people said.
At close of session, of the 30 sensex stocks, 28 closed in the red, with L&T, HDFC Bank and SBI contributing the most to the day’s loss, BSE data showed.

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