Investors' loss in US blue-chips double of Indian counterparts

The ongoing slump has taken a bigger toll on Indian stocks as compared to the US, but the investors' loss in the domestic blue-chips is only half of the wealth lost in American counterparts since the start of 2008.

The investors have lost close to $200 billion in the 30 Indian blue-chip stocks, which constitute the benchmark Sensex, so far in the current calendar year. But the loss is much bigger at about $400 billion in the 30 blue-chips of the US, which forms the barometer Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index there.

However, in percentage terms, the collective loss in the Sensex companies is higher at about 26 per cent, as against 8.7 per cent in the DJIA stocks.

Besides, as many as six companies in the DJIA pack "" Wal-Mart Stores, IBM, Du Pont, Home Depot, Caterpillar and JPMorgan Chase "" are trading with gains year-to-date, while only two Sensex companies "" Hindustan Unilever and Ranbaxy Laboratories ""have managed to improve on their market values from the 2007-end levels.

The collective market values of 30 DJIA companies have dropped from about $4.5 trillion at the end of 2007 to about $4.1 trillion currently. In the same period, the total market capitalisation of the 30 Sensex firms has dropped about $735 billion to about $537 billion.

Among the DJIA stocks, the biggest loss of about 26.63 per cent has been registered by Citigroup, while Merck, AIG and General Motors have lost more than 20 per cent each.