People walk past the Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai on April 7, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Much in sync with their global peers, the Sensex and the Nifty 50, tumbled on Monday (April 7,2025) as concerns over a potential global trade war spooked investor confidence.
Monday’s (April 7, 2025) events reignited fear of Black Monday 2.0. The predecessor was the first contemporary global financial crisis that sprung in the autumn of 1987.
Indian indices BSE Sensex and Nifty50 tumbled as fears gripped about the potential repercussions of U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ reciprocal tariffs. BSE Sensex shed 2,226.79 points to close 2.95% lower at 73,137.90, while the Nifty50 closed 3.24% lower at 22,161.60 after having lost 742.85 points at close. Asian markets plunged with Japan’s Nikkei falling to a one-and-half year low. Europe’s Stoxx 600 was 6% lower shortly after the opening bell, with all sectors and major bourses suffering significant losses.
We look back at the major stock market declines in India’s investing history:
1992: Harshad Mehta Scam
Harshad Mehta, the “Big Bull” of Dalal Street as he was oft referred to, misused the banking system to generate fake receipts, through which he raised funds from other banks to trade in stock markets. He used these funds to manipulate stock prices.
The day when the scam was unearthed on April 29, 1992, the Sensex slipped about 13% after losing 570 points. According to estimates referred to in online stockbroking platform 5Paisa’s online blog, Mehta and his associates siphoned off around ₹4,000 crore from the banking system (more than ₹24,000 crore in today’s wealth). The following stock market crash wiped out wealth worth ₹1 lakh crore.
The aftermath lingered for nearly two years before markets found their footing again.
2000: Ketan Parekh and the K-10 Stocks
Ketan Parekh invested in a group of IT and telecom stocks. He circumvented the rules to borrow money from banks and artificially inflated stocks. The scam resulted in losses exceeding ₹2,000 crore. As reported by The Hindu Businessline, the BSE Sensex plunged nearly 50% from a high of 4,500 to about 2,500 points. Investors lost almost ₹4,000 crore, which, in 1992, was a huge sum. Furthermore, the publication reported, Mr. Parekh utilised the dotcom boom of 1999-2000 by betting heavily on IT and telecom companies such as Pentamedia Graphics, HFCL, GTL, Silverline Technologies, Ranbaxy, Zee Telefilms, Global Trust Bank, DSQ Software, Aftek Infosys and SSI — collectively known as K-10 stocks.
2004: Lok Sabha election results spook markets
On May 17, 2004, the Sensex plummeted 11.1% in a single day after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance won the general elections in 2004. Trading was suspended twice as panic-selling gripped markets. The United Progressive Alliance’s victory were greeted with apprehensions about the largest party, Congress, potentially slowing privatisation of state-owned companies, ties with U.S. and taking to stringent tightening of rules in the market to appease the left-leaning and communist parties.
2008: The Global Financial Crisis
Global stock markets witnessed another crash in 2008 this time triggered by the complete collapse of Lehman Brothers and the unfolding subprime mortgage crisis in the United States.
In India, On January 21, 2008, the Sensex fell 1,408 points, or 7.4%.
Furthermore, according to stockbroking platform Groww, by the end of 2008, the Sensex had dropped from around 20,465 points to 9716 points. The Sensex finally crossed the 20,000-mark again in September 2010
2020: Covid-19
Stock markets the world over crashed in early 2020 with industrial and activities grinded to a halt to prevent the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stocks plunged as countries around the world announced strict lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the virus, halting economic activity and causing supply chain disruptions for several months.
In India, the Sensex fell 3,935 points, or 13.2% on March 23 that year.
-With inputs from Saptaparno Ghosh
Published – April 07, 2025 07:41 pm IST
