The Indian indexes had their largest decline in the previous four years on Tuesday due to counting day jitters, costing investors around Rs 30 lakh crore in a single season. Sensex ended Tuesday's trading at 72,079, down 4,389 points, or 5.74 percent, while Nifty lost 1,379 points, or 5.93 percent, to settle at 21,884 as the Lok Sabha election count moved into its final stages.
To close at 46,928 points, Nifty Bank lost more than 4,051 points, or 7.95 percent. On Nifty, the greatest gainers were Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Hero MotoCorp, Britannia, Nestle, and Divis Labs; the worst losers were ONGC, Coal India, and SBI.
All other sectoral indexes were in deep red, with real estate, telecom, metals, oil & gas, power, and PSU banks down more than 10 percent apiece. The exception to this was FMCG stocks, which fared better on a bad day for investors. The BSE smallcap and midcap indexes saw a 7–8% decline.
Because ordinary investors were holding highly leveraged positions, experts indicated that margin calls caused a large fall in the market, which had started to price in a landslide win for the NDA.
At the psychological level of 22,000, where immediate support is evident, the index may drop further lower, maybe to 21,400–21,500. Once the trend shifts in favor of the BJP easily winning the elections, recovery is likely, according to Rupak De, senior technical analyst at LKP Securities.
The previous significant advance was reversed by a wave of fear selling in the local market following the unexpected outcome of the general elections. Experts state that in spite of this, the market continues to anticipate stability in the coalition headed by the BJP as the primary election victor, hence averting a significant decline in the medium run.
