What exactly spooked investors enough to wipe out six lakh crore in one day

Markets fell hard on Monday. The Sensex dropped over 900 points below 73,000 and the Nifty slipped under 22,900, erasing close to Rs 6 lakh crore of value and taking BSE market capitalisation to around Rs 476 lakh crore. Every Sensex stock traded lower, with big lenders leading the fall.

The triggers are connected. Brent crude jumped 2.2 per cent to about 106.6 dollars after Washington rejected Iran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The American ten year yield sits near 5.2 per cent, making dollar assets attractive, and foreign investors turned sellers again in September after buying in July and August.

Stay calm and stay invested. Falls driven by oil and geopolitics tend to reverse once tensions cool, and nobody can time that turn. So keep your SIPs running, check that your equity share matches your goal timeline, and use weak days to add to quality holdings rather than exit them.