Banks have gone bust, jobs have been cut and stock markets are taking a pounding the world over. And in India, this is the worst October in
the 29 years that the 30-share benchmark Sensex has seen.

Times of India

Updated On » 10/23/2010

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In sheer percentage terms, this is the worst fall the Sensex has seen in a less than 30-day period — from 13,006 to 10,170 points, a drop of 21%.

According to available data, this is the worst performance recorded by the bellwether index since it was started in 1979. A similar drop was witnessed in the Octobers of 1992 and 2000, when the Sensex fell by 10-14%.

In 1992, it was on account of the securities scam and in 2000, the collapse was triggered by the burst of the dotcom bubble. The other years when the market recorded a poor performance in the same month were 2005 (a fall of 9.3%) and 1990 (9.2%).

October 2008 was marked by seven 500+ point crashes. During the month, index heavyweight Reliance Industries saw a fall of 30% in its stock price, while other blue-chip constituents such as ICICI Bank (which fell 21%), Bharti (12%) and HDFC (10%) have also taken a hit. October has also seen the worst performance in terms of percentage losses for a month in the year 2008. Mind you, the month still ain't over -- five trading days remain.