Mumbai, Jan. 7: The sensex tanked 749.05 points after Satyam chairman B. Ramalinga Raju dropped his bombshell today — and by the end of a torrid session investor wealth worth Rs 2,13,349 crore had melted amid worries that the worst corporate fraud in India could impact flows into the country and hurt Corporate India’s image.

Bourses reacted with fury to the revelations: Satyam was dropped from the Nifty 50 and replaced by Reliance Capital, while the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) suspended trading in Satyam Computer’s American depositary rights (ADRs) late tonight.

Beleaguered investors of Satyam Computer saw the value of their share plummeting 77.69 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange today. The scrip ended the day at Rs 39.95 after opening at Rs 179.10, a loss of Rs 139.15 over Tuesday’s close. Over 47 crore Satyam shares were traded on the two main bourses today. Reports indicated that there were physical deliveries of over 20 crore shares.

The company’s market capitalisation, too, took a huge beating, dipping to nearly Rs 2,692 crore from Rs 12,067.98 crore on Tuesday. The NSE Nifty fell 6.18 per cent to 2920.40.

Since Satyam Computer is a futures and options stock, circuit filter limits were not applicable on the stock.

On the NYSE, too, the impact of Raju’s disclosures saw the company’s ADRs opening 91 per cent lower.

Panic selling was seen across the board as all sectoral indices ended in the red with an average fall of 2.08 per cent to 16.95 per cent. The worst affected was the IT index which came down a huge 9.32 per cent on fears that the news could shake the confidence of overseas outsourcers in the Indian IT services industry.

Broking circles said though the massive fraud at Satyam Computer might be a one-off case, it would have an impact on the stock markets and domestic companies, particularly in the IT sector. This was the principal worry that saw investors dumping stocks across the board today.

“In the short term, we expect Satyam’s accounting fraud to increase woes for the technology sector which is already facing growth slowdown and political opposition in the US because of the recession,” brokerage Religare Hichens Harrison said today.

According to Hitesh Agrawal, head of research at Angel Broking, the episode has shaken the confidence of investors, both domestic and global, and the repercussions can be felt over the medium term.