Five red days on the bourses and investors saw over Rs 5 trillion going down the drain, as an across-the-board selling pressure dragged down the benchmark Sensex by over 1,800 points.
The BSE's 30-share barometer index continued its slide on Friday, fifth straight day, with a fall of 687.12 points led by sharp losses in blue-chips like RIL, DLF, ICICI Bank, Reliance Energy and Reliance Communications.
The Sensex has lost 1,813.75 points in last five trading sessions, while investors' wealth -- measured in terms of cumulative market capitalisation of all the listed companies -- has declined by Rs 5,21,310 crore (Rs 5,213.1 billion).
The total market capitalisation stood at Rs 66,17,501.33 crore (Rs 66,175.01 billion) at the end of today's trading, as against Rs 71,38,810 crore (Rs 71,388.1 billion) before bourses began business this week on Monday.
The Sensex has dropped to 19,013.70 points from 20,827.45
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points during this period. The loss for the week was about 2,000 points at today's intra-day low of 18,930.42 points.
Incidentally, the total loss of about Rs 5.2 trillion during the past five trading sessions is less than the demand generated by initial public offer of Anil Ambani group's Reliance Power.
The IPO, which opened four days ago on January 15 and was scheduled to close on Friday, has generated demand for shares worth well over Rs 6 trillion.
According to marketmen, profit booking in the secondary market to generate funds for Reliance Power IPO is a key reason for the ongoing plunge on the bourses.
Prevailing weakness in global markets, driven by massive losses disclosed by financial giants like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, is also putting pressure on the Indian market.
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