From Valentine To Quarantine

Indian bourses tanked over 37% in 25 sessions amidst sharp jump in trading volume and turnover

- Yagnesh Kansara

Stock markets across the globe have been bleeding post-Valentine’s Day, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 contagion assumed dangerous proportions. And everyone associated with the markets have been forced to undergo quarantine in terms of their investment. With the COVID-19 outbreak declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), panic gripped financial markets, including in India, where the benchmarks have shed in excess of 37 per cent in only 25 trading sessions. This works out to be a fall of 1.48 per cent on an average a day in the past five weeks.

All the leading global benchmark indices of Nikkei, Hang Sang, Dax, CAC, FTSE, DJIA have been bleeding profusely. Back home, Indian benchmarks, Nifty and S&P Sensex, have also lost 37.15 per cent and 37.02 per cent respectively as on March 23, in 25 sessions beginning February 13, 2020.