The Indian share market plunged nearly 800 points on the first day of its operation since the disappointing GDP data came out on Friday. The bloodbath in the stock market followed the news of the Indian GDP slipping to 5% growth in the first quarter of the 2019-20 financial year. Days later, other data showed that the growth of eight core industries had dropped to 2.1% in July against 7.3% in the same period last year. This was effectively a decline of 5.2% in one year.
A report by the Hindustan Times said that the Sensex lost 770 points while the broader NSE Nifty tanked by over 225 points. Among today’s top losers were ICICI Bank, ONGC, HDFC Vedanta, Tata Motors.
The Centre’s Narendra Modi government on Friday faced a real crisis after the GDP data for the first quarter of the financial year 2019-20 showed the economy grow by just 5%. This was less than 5.8% quarterly growth registered in the last quarter of the previous financial year and 8% that the Indian economy registered in the first quarter of the last financial year.
The latest revelation has officially confirmed that the country’s economy was facing its worst and most prolonged slowdown in six years. The economic growth for the quarter ending March 2013 had stood at 4.3%.
On Sunday, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had asked the Centre’s Narendra Modi government to give up its vendetta politics to save the economy, which he said was reeling under a man-made crisis.
Even some of the supporters of the government had attacked its economic policies. BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy had launched yet another blistering attack against his own government saying that it was bereft of both knowledge and boldness to save the economy. His attack came hours after the latest GDP data showed that the economic growth had slumped to 5%, the lowest in six years.