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10 Biggest Sensex Crashes And The Monday Jinx

Here's The Weekday That The Sensex Is Most Likely To Massively Crash
People watch stock prices on a screen on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007. The BSEs 30-share Sensex index jumped 536 points, or 3 percent, to an all-time high of 17,878 points in intraday trading. (AP Photo/Gautam Singh)
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People watch stock prices on a screen on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007. The BSEs 30-share Sensex index jumped 536 points, or 3 percent, to an all-time high of 17,878 points in intraday trading. (AP Photo/Gautam Singh)

The plummeting Sensex recorded an intra-day fall of 1500 points, making it the biggest crash in about seven years and the third biggest-ever for the BSE benchmark index.

While Monday's fall is biggest since October 24, 2008, a list of the top 10 intra-day falls for the Sensex, since the sub-prime crisis and the global recession of 2008. throws up a quirky one for the quiz books.

January 22, 2008: 2,272.93 points--Tuesday

January 21, 2008: 2,062.20 points--Monday

October 24, 2008: 1,204.88 points--Friday

August 24, 2015: 1,153.16 points--Monday

October 10, 2008: 1,088.60 points--Friday

March 17, 2008: 1,022.25 points--Monday

February 11, 2008:1,007.15 points--Monday

October 27, 2008: 1,003.68 points--Monday

October 8, 2008: 954.48 points--Wednesday

July 6, 2009: 953.61 points--Monday

Monday, six times out of ten, emerged as the gloomiest day for stock market investors. There isn't a reasonable explanation yet and traders that HuffPost India spoke to say it's coincidence. " Given that there are only five trading days in a week, it isn't too surprising that one day is favoured over the others," said Vaibhav Sanghavi, Managing Director, Ambit Investment.

However the interconnectedness of global markets--bad news in one place affects markets elsewhere--means that if the proverbial butterfly flapped its wings on a Friday in China, the storm that should've raged on Saturday--trading floors and businesses across the globe being shut over the weekend--carries over onto Monday. Moreover, in almost every case, markets begin to tank right from the clang of the morning bell.

Monday, internationally too, serves up dark memories for the stock market. October 19, 1987, known as 'Black Monday' saw markets beginning to tank in Hongkong and then spread globally. September 29, 2008 or when the Dow Jones Index lost 7.7 percentage points in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers declaring itself bankrupt.

There are key caveats though, in that--the small sample apart-- all the big crashes in the list above are disproportionately focused on a single month, October, and given the advent of the subprime crisis of 2008, it only takes the euphoria of the weekend to evaporate for investors and traders, the world over, to press panic first thing on Monday Morning.

(With inputs from PTI)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.