Market history · Sensex since 1992
Every fall, and the way back
Eight times in 34 years, Indian shares lost between 15% and 60% of their value. Every completed fall was eventually made good. The hard part was never the maths. It was the wait.
The falls, side by side
Tap a fall to read what happened. Depth of fall Months to regain the old peak
Figures are rounded and based on approximate Sensex closing levels. Sources differ slightly on exact peaks, bottoms and recovery dates. Waits are measured from the old peak to the day it was regained.
What the pattern says
- Falls are normal, not rare. A drop of 20% or more has come roughly once every four or five years.
- The cause is always different. A scam, a tech bubble, a banking crisis, a pandemic, a war. Waiting for the cause to repeat is waiting for the wrong thing.
- Deep falls take longer to repair. A 50% fall needs a 100% rise just to break even. That is why the 1990s and 2000s waits were measured in years.
- The investor's behaviour decided the outcome. Those who kept investing through the bottom bought the most units at the lowest prices. Those who stopped often missed the recovery.
None of this says when the next fall will start or end. It says that a fall, by itself, has not been a reason to give up on owning good businesses for the long run.
Zoom out far enough, and every crash becomes a dip in a rising line. Living through one is what takes practice.
See what continuing a SIP through a fall can do with the cost of stopping your SIP calculator, or read why investors sell at the bottom.
For educational purposes only. Past market behaviour does not predict future returns. Historical index figures are approximate and drawn from public sources including Business Standard, Daily Financial and Zeneqt's own Market Desk records. This page is not investment advice.