Dalal Street witnesses Rs 1.70 lakh crore loss

Stock market investors on Thursday saw a whopping Rs 1,70,000 crore being wiped off their portfolios, taking the total loss since the US subprime crisis first hit domestic bourses late last month to nearly Rs 3,30,000 crore। The Bombay Stock Exc hange's 30-share benchmark index Sensex today plunged by 642।70 points, its second biggest one-day fall in absolute value terms The crash saw the cumulative market capitalisation of all the listed companies dropping to around Rs 42,77,000 crore, as agai nst Rs 44,44,000 crore after the market close on August

The total invested wealth in the stock market has seen sharp erosion since July 27, when the crisis in the US subprime credit segment first reached the Indian market। Since then, the total market capitalisation on the Indian bourses has gone down by near ly 3,30,000 crore from more than Rs 46,00,000 crore on July 26.

The combined market value of the 30 blue chip firms on the benchmark BSE Sensex has fallen close to Rs 2,25,000 crore since July 27, including about Rs 90,000 crore today itself।

Among the Sensex blue chips, Reliance Industries lost Rs 12,910 crore today, while ONGC saw an erosion of Rs 7,518 crore. Both RIL and ONGC have lost close to Rs 28,000 crore each since July 27. However, the biggest market cap loss in absolute value ter ms has been registered by state-run power equipments major BHEL, which has seen an erosion of more than Rs 37,000 crore since July 27.