Why Market is Down Today: The Indian stock market witnessed a significant drop today, resulting in a massive loss of ₹5.95 lakh crore for investors. The Sensex fell 820.97 points to close at 78,675.18, while the Nifty ended 257.85 points lower at 23,883.45. Three main factors contributed to this decline:

Weak Quarterly Results

The September quarter earnings for many companies fell short of market expectations, leading to heavy selling, particularly in midcap and small-cap stocks. Analysts report that Indian companies are experiencing one of the biggest earnings downgrades since early 2020, which has further pressured the market.

Foreign Investor Selling

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continue to pull out funds from the Indian market. So far in November, they have withdrawn ₹22,156.41 crore, following a record outflow of over ₹1 lakh crore in October. Additionally, India lost its top spot in the MSCI Emerging Market Investable Market Index to China, as global investors shift towards China’s attractive valuations.

Weakness in Auto and Banking Sectors

The Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Auto, and Nifty Financial Services indices all dropped by over 1%. The Nifty Bank index also fell nearly 1%, with weak October sales data from auto companies and cautious sentiment surrounding banking and financial stocks ahead of consumer price index data.

As a result of today’s decline, the market capitalization of BSE-listed companies has shrunk to ₹436.59 lakh crore, down from ₹442.54 lakh crore in the previous session.