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Bloodbath on Dalal Street amid fears of 'uncertain poll outcome

New Delhi, NT Correspondent: Aday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi did a sudden turnaround targeting the opposition Congress party for receiving ‘tempo loads of currency’ from industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, the markets took a big hit with the BSE Sensex tumbling 1,062.22 points on Thursday.

Investors' wealth suffered a staggering loss of Rs 7.34 lakh crore. Ever since he was targeted by the Opposition for his ‘proximity’ to big industrialists primarily Adani and for ‘doing favours’ for them, Modi has maintained a stoic silence on the charges and so his speech on Wednesday came like a bolt from the blue making observers wonder what had triggered the remark.

Analysts were therefore quick to blame the huge market losses on ‘political uncertainties’ and this seemed pretty surprising considering that the BJP-led NDA is considered the frontrunner to win the ongoing Lok Sabha elections till now.

Not many however expect the BJP and its allies to cross the 400 seat mark which it is targeting considering that it has already peaked in most north Indian states in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and can only go down in numbers.

Observers are also cynical about the BJP winning in the south despite a campaign blitz by Modi, and its prospects in big states like Maharashtra and Bihar which together send around 100 members to Parliament.

Sources claim the uncertainty about the results may have triggered jitters among investors. "Markets buckled under relentless selling pressure as investors turned risk averse in the ongoing poll season and lightened their equity exposure to avoid being caught off guard.

As the election season is heating up, investors are trimming their equity exposure at a faster pace," said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 6,669.10 crore on Wednesday.

"The market is continuously witnessing pressure ahead of the election outcome. We don't have any global reason for this while uncertainty ahead of the big event is causing profitbooking in the market," Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart Ltd, said.