March of doom: Sensex crashes 2,919 points; bears set in as investors lose Rs 11 lakh crore

Analysts expect similar bloodbath to continue on Friday as 3.5 years' worth of gains wiped out

As the Indian equity markets witnessed the unprecedented bloodbath on Thursday on back of Coronavirus fears and risk to the Indian financial system, both the benchmark indices -- BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty -- officially entered the 'bear markets'.

Throughout the day the 30-share index of BSE -- Sensex -- witnessed a sell-off. The sell-off expedited in the afternoon, as western markets started trading and foreign investors started pulling out their monies and parking them in safe havens like gold and US Treasury Bills.

Follow today's developments of the stock markets here

The Sensex marked its worst loss ever in history, toppling the previous biggest loss of 1,942 points in the span of just two days. The benchmark index closed 2,919 points (8.18%) at 32,778 points. The markets recovered in the last one hour of the trade, as Sensex pared its losses by close to 500 points.

During the day, all blue-chip stocks traded in the red, led by SBI (13.15%), ONGC (12.91%), Axis Bank (12.57%) and ITC (12.07%).

The situation in the broader index 50-share NSE Nifty was no different, as it collapsed by 825 points (7.89%) to 9,633 -- below the psychological mark of 10,000.

With this, both Nifty with losses of 22.2% and Sensex with losses of 22.1% over the past two months have entered a bear market. The index should lose 20% or more from the life-high to be referred to as a bear market.

During the day, equity investors lost a whopping sum of Rs 10.9 lakh crore. With this, as the equity investors have lost about Rs 34 lakh crore in the past two months, all the gains made since June 2017 have been wiped off.

All the indices across BSE and NSE traded in deep red, with bank stocks, after the collapse of YES Bank, being the worse hit. The Nifty PSU Bank index crashed by 12.52%, while the Private Bank Index crashed by 8.45%.

Analysts expect similar bloodbath to continue on Friday.

"Markets got smoked today and may continue for a bit as investors as yet do not have a grip on how NCOVID-19 and the Yes Bank fiasco will play out - both being systemic challenges. However, those looking at longer-term rest of their portfolios may start to return, with interest perking up in certain parts," said Anubhav Srivastava of Infinity Alternatives.

The analysts expect the bond (Gsec) markets and other flight to safety assets may continue to see popularity for some time.