The volatility in the stock market could have been noticed from the start of the year 2020 but it came in notice only after the month of January, when the first covid case was discovered in the country. But corona virus was not the only reason which made the market crash. There were several international and local factors which impacted the market in that 2-3 month time period. Below mentioned are some of the most important dates when stock market crashed noticably, giving us one of the worst crashes in the stock market history of India.
1st February 2020
On this day, the Union Budget of Financial Year 2020-21 was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the lower house of the Indian Parliament. As was expected and just like every year, the market plunged slightly with a couple of per cent changes in the values.
The BSE Sensex goes down 1,274 points as the day’s low, before settling 988 points or 2.43 per cent with the Closing value of 39,735. On the other hand, NSE Nifty50 went down 392 points or 3.26 per cent, before closing at 11,644.
28th February 2020
On the last day of the month, and exactly after a month of the first case being found in the country, World Health Organization (W.H.O) announced that coronavirus has pandemic potential. The stock market fell for the entire week, ending with the worst weekly fall after the 2008 crisis.
For BSE Sensex, the value nosedived for 1,448 points or 3.64 per cent which closed the session for the day at 38,297 points. On the other hand, NSE Nifty50 went down 432 points or 3.7 per cent before closing at 11,202. As the market was down for the whole week, Sensex saw a 7 per cent drop and Nifty declined by 7.2 per cent in total.
4th March 2020
On this date as the Union Minister of Health, Dr Harsh Vardhan announced the growing cases of coronavirus in India. Due to this, the equity market came under selling pressure and the benchmark indices plunged around a couple of per cent during the day but recovered rapidly by the end.
The BSE Sensex goes down by 214 points or 0.55, settling down at 38,409 points. Out of 30 stocks, 17 of them declined and went showed negative growth at the end of the day. This time the fall in NSE’s Nifty50 was also very less with a drop of 52 points or 0.46 per cent, ending the day at 11,200 points. Out of the 50 stocks, 28 of them ended in red and the other 22 ended in the green.
6th March 2020
For the last three days, the market fell drastically and several crores of wealth wiped out of the market. The market fell around thousands of points in the past few days. Of course, the coronavirus
around the world and in the nation was impacting the market every day but the Yes Bank crisis also played a major factor in dragging the market down. On this day, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took over Yes Bank under its management for reconstruction and merged it with the State Bank of India (SBI). The bank was suffering from the heavy pressure of cleaning of bad loans for a couple of years and the step was needed to be taken for the smooth functioning.
The BSE Sensex experienced a huge drop of 894 points or 2.32 per cent which settled the day end at 37,577, hitting the low for the day at 37,011. On the other hand, NSE’s Nifty50 index went down to 10,989 points with a drop of 279.5 or 2.48 per cent.
9th March 2020
By this time of the month, the world (especially the West and the European Nations) was suffering heavily from the coronavirus outbreak and it has created havoc in the global market. India being no exception, suffered its worst single-day fall since the demonetization and the corona outbreak, also this came at the time when the market was already suffering from the recent Yes Bank crisis and the oil prices were experiencing a sharp fall already.
The benchmark indices lost nearly 5 per cent of their values at the end of the general trading day. BSE’s Sensex closed the day with 35,634.95 points after losing 1941.67 points or over 5 per cent in a single day. On the other hand, NSE’s Nifty50 dropped down 538 points or 5 per cent, ending the trading day as low as 10,451.50 points.
12th March 2020
The day has arrived when World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus outbreak as a “Pandemic”. The news was so disastrous that Rs. 11 trillion worth of investor wealth was eroded in the market before the afternoon as the selling pressure on investors kept on increasing. Continuing the falling trend for the whole week, the benchmark indices experienced their worst intraday drop of 9 per cent in history.
The BSE Sensex dropped two years low at 32,493.10 and ending the day at 32,778 as it dropped 2,919 points or 8.18 per cent. Since 26 March 2018, NSE Nifty50 for the first time opened below 10,000 because of the previous days falls and closed at the 32 monthly low of 9,633, dropping 825 points or 7.89 per cent.
16th March 2020
After a weekend, the market opened on Monday as it took a small rise from the disastrous downfall for the whole week. But as expected, the market again falls with a nose sharp dip due to the Global Economic recession. Following the global counterpart as US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to near-zero on the previous day, making another sudden move to boost up the US economy after the rapid spread of the pandemic. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was also expected to cut the interest rates in the fight against the deadly virus.
The benchmark indices saw a deep fall on this day. BSE Sensex went down to 31,390 points in the market, losing 2,713 points or approximately 8 per cent by the end of the session. 30 company’s stocks in the benchmark index ended up in the red. On the other hand, NSE’s Nifty50 experienced a drop of 756 points or 7.6 per cent before closing at 9,199.
23rd March 2020
This was the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown to contain Covid-19 while addressing the nation in his speech as the coronavirus was going into a terrifying phase. All businesses were closed and the roads were empty, which made the equity market crumbed putting high selling pressure on the investors. People owning small businesses and labourers are the worst affected as they work on their physical ability.
The BSE Sensex took a steep dive of 3,935 points or over 13 per cent in a single day, ending the day at 25,981 points. All the 30 constituents in the index ended up with a red. On the other hand, NSE Nifty50 stumbled with a huge 1,135 points or 13 per cent to close the day session at 7,610. On the single day of lockdown, the investors lost Rs. 13.88 trillion of wealth which is comparatively a huge amount with the last month lost wealth of Rs. 56.22 trillion.