Investors' wealth plunged over Rs 3.39 lakh crore in early trade on Friday amid an extremely weak broader market trend.
The BSE benchmark tanked 1,011.93 points to 57,914.10 after a weak opening.
The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies declined by Rs 3,39,519.47 crore to Rs 2,64,41,844.80 crore in early trade.
''US inflation in January came worse-than-expected at 7.5 per cent pushing the 10-year yield to 2.03 per cent discounting a hawkish Fed, which may raise rates by at least by 100 basis points this year. A rate hike by even 50 bps in March is looking increasingly probable now. This is not good news for global equity markets,'' V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.
IT stocks were the biggest drag among the BSE 30-share benchmark frontline companies pack. Infosys was the biggest loser, falling nearly 3 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra and Wipro.
In the broader market, the BSE midcap and smallcap indices were trading over 1 per cent lower.
In the previous trading session, the 30-share BSE benchmark settled 460.06 points or 0.79 per cent higher at 58,926.03.
