Equity investors became poorer by Rs 7.48 lakh crore in five consecutive days of market fall, where the BSE Sensex has declined by nearly 3 per cent.

In the past five days, the BSE Sensex has tumbled 1,713.71 points or 2.79 per cent.

This has led to an erosion of Rs 7,48,887.04 crore from the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms in five trading sessions. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms now stands at Rs 2,60,82,098.56 crore.

On Thursday, the BSE benchmark ended 139.18 points or 0.23 per cent lower at 59,605.80.

"The equity market traded cautiously between gains and losses as the minutes of the central bank policy meeting revealed concerns over high inflation and its commitment to bring inflation under control. In response to the heightened fears of rate hikes, the US 10 yr treasury yield continued to stay high, near 4 per cent," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

On Wednesday, the Sensex plunged 927.74 points or 1.53 per cent to settle at 59,744.98.

"Yesterday's sharp cut of 927 points on the Sensex was caused by a combination of factors: weak US cues, the continuing rout in Adani stocks and concerns of the Adani crisis impacting the banking system," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

He further said that the FOMC minutes reveal the fact that some have even argued for a 50 basis points rate hike.

"This is the biggest near-term negative for equity markets globally," Vijayakumar added.

On Thursday, in the Sensex pack, Asian Paints, IndusInd Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, Titan, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Power Grid and HDFC were the major laggards.

On the other hand, Axis Bank, Maruti, ITC, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Tata Steel and Sun Pharma were among the gainers.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge declined 0.40 per cent, while the smallcap index gained marginally by 0.06 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, realty declined by 1.60 per cent, utilities by 1.29 per cent, power (1.19 per cent), consumer durables (0.95 per cent) and capital goods (0.84 per cent).

FMCG, auto, bank, metal, oil & gas and services were the gainers.

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