Mumbai, Dec. 12: Stocks were clobbered again today with the bellwether sensex losing almost 1,000 points in the last three trading sessions which shaved Rs 2.79 lakh crore off shareholder wealth.

The 977.01-point loss in just three sessions has been the sharpest fall since June.

After losing 400 points yesterday, the sensex lost another 404.41 points today and settled below the 13000 level for the first time since November 1 at 12995.02, down 3.02 per cent.

The indices, however, regained some lost ground during the final minutes of trade after plunging over 575 points to an intra-day low of 12801.65, while it swung 690.56 points during the day.

The Nifty also fell steeply by 132.60 points or 3.44 per cent to end the day at 3716.90 from the last close of 3849.50.

Of the total Rs 2.79 lakh crore eroded in the last three sessions, Rs 1.39 lakh crore was lost in today’s session as the market ended with a total capitalisation of Rs 33.51 lakh crore. The trading volume was, however, high at Rs 4,930.56 crore on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In June, the bellwether index had tumbled 1521.89 points from 10451.33 on June 2 to 8929.44 on June 14, while the last such major fall was in July 2006, when it had lost 922.75 points; from 10930.09 on July 12 to 10007.34 on July 19. The indices had fallen sharply in May, when it had lost 1736.04 points to 10481.77 on May 22 from 12217.81 on May 17.

According to market watchers, the selloff appears confusing as there is hardly any institutional selling.

“Keeping in mind the favourable external factors and firm global markets, there hardly seems any reason for the panic selling. The only plausible reason appears to be margin call problems,” said an analyst. A similar situation had emerged when the indices had tumbled over 10 per cent in a week during May.

According to the brokers, the derivatives segment witnessed intensified selling as operators and foreign institutional investors disposed of their long holdings in a bid to escape margin calls.

The negative sentiments on the bourses were heightened by a lower-than-expected industrial output figure of 6.2 per cent for October, the lowest for the fiscal, they added.

“However, apart from the margin call problem, this correction appears to be a part of an uptrend, though there might be another sharp blow before the indices stage a recovery” a fund manager said.