Stock market crashes in India 1979-2019

Crash of 1991
After the liberalization of India in 1991, the stock market saw a number of cycles of booms and busts, some related to scams such as those engineered by players such as Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh, some due to global events and a few due to circular trading, rigging of prices and the irrational exuberance of investors leading to bubbles that finally burst.

Crash of 1992
On 28 April 1992, the BSE experienced a fall of 12.77% - its largest fall in history (in terms of percentage) due to the Harshad Mehta scam.

Crashes of 2006

• On May 22, 2006, the Sensex plunged by 1100 points during intra-day trading, leading to the suspension of trading for the first time since May 17, 2004. The volatility of the Sensex had caused investors to lose Rs 6 lakh crore ($131 billion) within seven trading sessions. The Finance Minister of India, P. Chidambaram, made an unscheduled press statement when trading was suspended to assure investors that nothing was wrong with the fundamentals of the economy, and advised retail investors to stay invested. When trading resumed after the reassurances of the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Sensex managed to move up 700 points, still 450 points in the red. The Sensex eventually recovered from the volatility, and on October 16, 2006, the Sensex closed at an all-time high of 12,928.18 with an intra-day high of 12,953.76. This was a result of increased confidence in the economy and reports that India's manufacturing sector grew by 11.1% in August 2006.

Crashes of 2007

• 2 April 2007: The sensex fell by 617 points to 12,455 though during the course of the day, it fell further. As per the analysts at rediff, "The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 260 points at 12,812 following the Reserve Bank of India [Get Quote] decision to hike the cash reserve ratio and repo rate. Unabated selling, mainly in auto and banking stocks, saw the index drift to lower levels as the day progressed. The index tumbled to a low of 12,426 before finally settling with a hefty loss of 617 points (4.7%) at 12,455".
• 1 August 2007: The sensex continued to fall and finally settled at 14,936 while the nifty fell by 183 points to 4,346. As per Rediff, "The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 207 points at 15,344 amid weak trends in the global market and slipped deeper into the red. Unabated selling across-the-board saw the index tumble to a low of 14,911. The Sensex finally ended with a hefty loss of 615 points at 14,936. The NSE Nifty ended at 4,346, down 183 points. This was the third biggest loss in absolute terms for the index (thus far)".
• 16 August 2007: The sensex continue to languish a good 500 points down for most of the trading session, finally closing at a low of 14,358, a loss of 643 points.
• 16 October 2007: SEBI (Securities & Exchange Board of India) proposed curbs on participatory notes which accounted for roughly 50% of FII investment in 2007. SEBI was not happy with P-notes because it was not possible to know who owned the underlying securities, and hedge funds acting through P-notes might therefore cause volatility in the Indian markets.
• 17 October, 2007 Within a minute of opening trade, the Sensex crashed by 1744 points or about 9% of its value - the biggest intra-day fall in Indian stock markets in absolute terms till then. This led to automatic suspension of trade for 1 hour. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram issued clarifications, in the meantime, that the government was not against FIIs and was not immediately banning PNs. After the market opened at 10:55 AM, the index staged a comeback and ended the day at 18715.82, down 336.04 from the last day's close.This was, however not the end of the volatility. The next day (October 18, 2007), the Sensex tumbled by 717.43 points — 3.83 per cent — to 17998.39. The slide continued the next day when the Sensex fell 438.41 points to settle at 17559.98 at the end of the week, after touching the lowest level of that week at 17226.18 during the day.After detailed clarifications from the SEBI chief M. Damodaran regarding the new rules, the market made a 879-point gain on October 23, thus signalling the end of the PN crisis.
• 18 October 2007: While activity remained normal in the morning, during noon trades, the sensex tumbled down as the intensity of selling increased towards the closing bell of the BSE. The sensex tumbled all the way to a low of 17,771 - down 1,428 points from the same day's high. It finally settled on 17,998 with a loss of 717 points (3.8%). The Nifty too lost 208 points and closed at 5,351.
• 21 November 2007: Trying to explain the fall, rediff recounted that "Mirroring weakness in other Asian markets, the Sensex saw relentless selling." The index tumbled to a new low of 18,515 - down 766 points from the previous day's close. It finally ended with a loss of 678 points at 18,603. The Nifty also lost 220 points to close at 5,561.[1]
• 17 December 2007: As per rediff, "Again, a heavy bout of selling in the late noon deals saw the BSE Sensex plunge to a low of 19,177 - down 856 points from the day's open. The Sensex finally closed at 19,261 - a fall 0f 769 points (3.8%). The NSE Nifty 50 ended at 5,777, down 271 points".

Crashes of 2008

• on 21 Jan 2008, the BSE fell by 1408 points to 17,605 leading to one of the largest erosions in investor wealth. The BSE stopped trading for a while at 2:30 pm due to a technical snag although its circuit filter allows swings of up to 15% before stopping trading for an hour. Referred to in the media as "Black Monday", the fall was blamed by analysts at HSBC mutual fund and JP Morgan on a large variety of reasons including change in the global investment climate, fears of United States' economy going into a recession, FIIs and foreign hedge funds selling in order to reallocate their funds from risky emerging markets to stable developed markets, a cut in US interest rates, global bourses (often referred to as event related volatility), volatility in commodities markets, a combination of global and local factors ("...other emerging markets were down nearly 20% so India is playing catch-up..."), huge build-ups in derivatives positions leading to margin calls and that many IPOs had sucked out liquidity from the primary market into the secondary market. HSBC mutual funds analysts predicted further falls in the stock market, and the analysts at JP Morgan were of the opinion that market would fall a further 10-15%.[18][19][20]
• On the next day on 22 January 2008, the Sensex again fell by 875 points to 16,729.
• On 11 Feb 2008, the sensex fell by a further 834 points to 16,630.
• On 3 March 2008, the Sensex fell by 900 points to settle at 16,677.
• On 17 March 2008, the BSE Sensex fell further to 14,809 - a fall of 951 points.
• On 24 October 2008, the BSE Sensex fell to 8701, a fall of 1070 points in a single day.
• On 26 November 2008, the sensex continue to fall, in the bargain (as per the financial newspaper Livemint) "...dashing middle class dreams". Analysts at Livemint and Ajmera associates, Anagram capital and Ace financial services ascribed a number of reasons for this, ranging from arge sales by foreign institutional investors (FII), withdrawal of money by the insurance sector. They all felt that the sensex could rise by at the most 20-30% in 2009, from its them level of 9000 points.

Crashes of  2009
On 6 July 2009, the sensex fell by 869 points to 14,043.

Crashes of 2015

• On 6 Jan 2015, the sensex fell by 854 points to 26,987.
• On 24 August 2015, the BSE sensex crashed by 1,624 points and the NSE fell by 490 points. Finally the indices closed at 25,741 points and the Nifty to 7,809 points. The reason given for this crash was given as a ripple effect due to fears over a slowdown in China, as the Yuan had been devalued two weeks ago leading to a fall in the currency rates of other currencies and the rapid selling of stocks in China and India. The Shanghai stock exchange too fell by 8.5%. A variety of other reasons too were given for this fall by analysts including disappointing earnings in the first quarter for many Indian companies, somber commentaries by their management leading to doubts regarding their recovery and a below average monsoon for that year.

Crashes of 2016

• The stock markets in India continued to fall in 2016. By 16 February 2016, the BSE had seen a fall of 26% over the past eleven months, losing 1607 points in four consecutive days of February. The reasons given for this included NPAs of Indian banks, "global weaknesses" and "global factors". In the four months from November 2015 to February 2016, FIIs were reported to have sold equities worth Rs 17,318 crore as, in the opinion of analysts, concerns grew over growth in China and as crude oil prices tumbled below $30 per barrel
• On 9 November 2016, crashed by 1689 points, believed by analysts to be due to the crack down on black money by the Indian government, resulting in franctic selling. The sensex nosedived by 6% to 26,902 and the Nifty dropped by 541 pints to 8002. These were said to be due to the demonetization drive by the Modi government. The Hindu was of the opinion that the weakening rupee and the US presidential election too had some bearing on the behavior of investors. The fall was concurrent with falls in other Asian stock markets including the Hang Seng, Nikkei and the Shanghai Composite. The S&P had also fallen by 4.45%.

Crashes of 2018

In the third week of January 2008, the Sensex experienced huge falls along with other markets around the world. On 21 January 2008, the Sensex saw loss of 1,408 points at the end of the session. The Sensex recovered to close at 17,605.40 after it tumbled to the day's low of 16,963.96, on high volatility as investors panicked following weak global cues amid fears of a recession in the US.

Although not classified as a crash, the BSE and NSE fell sharply on 2 and 5 February 2018, sparked by the comments of the Finance minister's proposal in the budget speech to introduce a 10% long term capital gains tax (LTCG) on equity shares sold after 12 months.[26][27][28] The BSE Sensex fell by 600 points in two days, and the Nifty 50 fell by about 400 points to 10,676 on 5th. Earlier, the BSE sensex had fallen by 570 points to 35,328 on 2 February and the NSE Nifty by 190 points to a low of 10,826.