Top Gujarat firms skid on Ukraine crisis

Owing to escalating tension between Ukraine and Russia, the domestic equity market benchmark BSE sensex ended in the red for the fifth straight session at 57,300.68 on Tuesday. With this, the market capitalization of five out of 10 Gujarat-based companies eroded by Rs 42,741.16 crore in five sessions in a week.

Analysts attribute the erosion largely to profit booking, as jittery investors turned cautious amid the Russia-Ukraine standoff.

After the 1700-point low of February 14, the BSE sensex recovered on February 15 to touch 58,142.05. However, as the market indices consistently fell, by 841.37 points over five sessions, the m-cap of several companies eroded. During this period, five out of the top 10 Gujarat companies posted major losses in their m-cap. They were Sun Pharma (Rs 7,262.9 crore), Adani Total Gas (Rs 17,168 crore), Adani Wilmar (Rs 9,026 crore), and Gujarat Gas (Rs 1,018 crore).

The total wealth eroded across India is Rs 7.04 lakh crore during this period, according to BSE India. "All stocks that had a dream run for the past year and a half have now posted losses," said a city-based financial analyst.

"Investors turned jittery amid escalating geopolitical tensions and the price of crude oil touched $100 a barrel yet again." The analyst added: "Therefore, many investors pulled out money to book their profits, as a result of which share prices tanked."