On May 2, the aggregate market capitalisation of the three sectors was over Rs 12 lakh crore -- a little less than a third of India's gross domestic product last year. In the following two months, the shareholders of the leading companies in the three sectors lost over a third of their wealth. The sell-off was triggered by deterioration in macro-economic indicators and investor concerns about future economic growth.

Worst hit have been shareholders of real estate companies, whose wealth nearly halved during the period. Market capitalisation of real estate companies dipped by almost Rs 1,40,000 crore -- equivalent to the turnover of Reliance Industries in FY08. The proxy for the real estate sector was understandably DLF, which saw its share price decline from Rs 727 to Rs 394, a decline of 46%.

Banking and capital goods shares too fell sharply, losing 40% and 29% of the value, respectively. Share price of Bhel, the benchmark for the capital goods sector, fell 29%, while SBI shares have been down 40%. The reasons for the severe impact on these sectors are on account of the correlation of these industries with the benchmark indices. Capital goods, banks and real estate possess a very high beta to the index. This means that when market performs poorly, the impact on these sectors is even greater. So, while the Sensex dipped 28% in the period, capital goods, banks and real estate crashed 29%, 40% and 50%, respectively.