The Indian stock market today lost its trillion-dollar status, as a decline in the rupee and share valuations led to its size slipping below this mark to $994.97 billion, according to India's Economic Times:
India had managed to hold onto the select league of the countries with a trillion-dollar stock market by a whisker for past few days, but finally gave in today after the market barometer Sensex fell to a fresh 28-month low and the rupee lost further value against the US dollar.
At the end of today's trade, the total size of the Indian market, measured in terms of cumulative valuation of all listed stocks, stood at Rs 52,60,440.78 crore.
As the rupee ended the day at Rs 52.87 level, the stock market's size in the American currency was USD 994.97 billion -- just a shade below the trillion-dollar mark.
The Indian market had a size of USD 1.0116 trillion (Rs 53,48,352.02 crore) at the end of yesterday's trade.
A total of 13 countries are now estimated to be left in the trillion-dollar stock market club, including the US, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, China, Japan, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and France.
The Indian market had first achieved a trillion-dollar size about four and half years ago on May 28, 2007, but moved out of this coveted league about a year later on July 1, 2008.
India again joined this elite club of markets with trillion-dollar valuation about a year later on June 3, 2009.
The Indian market was, in fact, seen inching towards the two-trillion dollar mark at least twice in the past -- first in early 2008 and then at the beginning of 2011 with a size as high as USD 1.9 trillion.
A sharp plunge in the market this year has led to the Indian market valuation falling by close to Rs 20 lakh crore (over USD 500 billion), from about Rs 73 lakh crore (USD 1.7 trillion) at the beginning of 2011.
The rupee has been a declining trend for many months now and had hit its record low level below Rs 54-level last week, but the fall was somewhat arrested since then on the back of an intervention by the Reserve Bank.
The market size has been hovering above the trillion- dollar mark for last few days and an eminent miss was averted on Thursday last week, when the RBI managed to reverse the downfall of rupee after a record fall to Rs 54.30 level.
On Friday, the market size stood at Rs 54,11,301 crore or USD 1.026 trillion, based on that day's currency rate of Rs 52.30, as the market tanked sharply. The trillion-dollar tag had been lost that day itself, if the rupee had managed to hold onto its record high levels.
In terms of individual exchanges, the total size of stocks listed on the NSE yesterday itself slipped below trillion-dollar mark to USD 989 billion (Rs 52,30,333 crore).
At the end of today's trade, NSE-listed market valuation stood at Rs 51,42,566 crore (USD 972.68 billion).
However, the market valuation of NSE-listed companies is not considered as the country's stock market size, as not all the companies are listed on this exchange.
Indian stocks are mainly listed on two national bourses, the BSE and the NSE, but the numbers of listed companies on the two stock exchanges differ sharply.
While about 1,600 stocks are actively traded on the NSE, the number is almost double at over 2,900 at the BSE.
Almost all the stocks listed on the NSE are also listed on the BSE and therefore the cumulative valuation of companies listed on the BSE is treated as the total market size.
India moves out of trillion-dollar stock market club - The Economic Times