Investors on Dalal Street lost over ₹17 lakh crore in what turned out to be the worst week for the Nifty 50 since June 2022.

The 50-stock benchmark index ended 4.7% lower for the week, while it had declined 5.6% in the week between June 6-10, 2022.

A combination of escalating tensions between Iran and Israel and the subsequent rise in oil prices, coupled with the rally in the Chinese stock markets, which has led to tactical money moving out of India, triggered the fall in the markets this week.

In fact, Thursday’s trading session saw a foreign institutional sell figure of ₹15,243 crore, which was the highest in a single session in four years. Most of the delivery-based selling was concentrated to largecap names like Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Tata Motors.

The combined market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies, which stood at ₹478 lakh crore as of closing last Friday, fell to ₹461 lakh crore by close of this truncated week.

“My sense is that the whole sector rotation will continue, we saw auto and pharma being the best of the sectors last year and the earnings is still pretty strong but the valuations doesn’t leave enough room for upside,” Ajay Vora of Nuvama Asset Management told CNBC-TV18.

42 Nifty constituents ended with losses this week, led by Hero MotoCorp, which fell 9%, despite its auto sales for the month of September, significantly surpassing estimates.

Index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and L&T fell between 6.5% to 7.5% for the week.

The upcoming week will see earnings season kick-off with TCS starting the Nifty earnings season on October 10, along with stocks like Tata Elxsi, IREDA and others.