Dalal Street waved red flags through the day as the Sensex crashed over 3,200 points intraday and the Nifty fell by 950 points, their biggest single-day fall historically amid global sell-offs over virus fears on March 12.
The Sensex closed at 32,778 points, 2,919 points or 8.18% lower. The markets recovered in the last hour of trade as the benchmark index pared losses by nearly 500 points.
The blue-chip index Nifty 50 fell 868 points and settled at 9,590 or 8.3% lower. The massive sell-off was mainly attributed to panic over the novel coronavirus pandemic as investors parked their funds in safe havens.
Markets recorded their biggest single-day decline on March 12 with the Sensex plunging 3,204 points and Nifty50 falling 950 points amid a global rout of falling stock prices.
Here are five other historic market falls from the past:
1. On March 9, 2020, the Sensex plunged by 1,941.67 points and Nifty50 was down 538 points as Saudi Arabia declared an all-out oil price war. Crude oil prices plummetted over 30% and US stocks nosedived so quickly that an automatic halt in trading was triggered for the first time in over two decades.
2. On Aug. 24, 2015, the Sensex fell by 1,624.51 points after the global markets crashed and the rupee tumbled. The same year on Jan. 6, the market crashed by 854.86 points.
3. On Feb. 28, 2020, the Sensex fell by 1,448.37 points after the global markets witnessed a crash on the back of slowdown concerns due to the coronavirus outbreak.
4. On Jan. 21, 2008, amid global worries over the slowing economic progress, the Sensex fell by 1,408.35 points. It was the year of the global financial crisis as sub-prime lending defaults led to the collapse of many US banks.
5. On Oct. 24, 2008, the Sensex fell 1,071 points, a month after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, as more and more financial institutions crumbled.