Is October a market crash month? 1929 crash to Black Monday 1987 - Why October scares equities, stocks investors

The Indian stock market entered October by recording its longest eighth straight weekly loss. It was the longest such streak of Nifty and Sensex in 25 years. The sharp decline on Thursday came as stock market investors entered October, which is infamous among global investors for incidents like Black Monday stock market crash in October 1987 and the Wall Street crash of 1929.

As October begins, let’s revisit some of the biggest stock market crashes in October and understand how Nifty and Sensex have performed in the month over the last ten years.

The Black Monday stock market crash

The Black Monday stock market crash occurred on October 19, 1987. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 22% in a single day. The catastrophic fall marked the largest single-day percentage drop in the US stock market history. As per media reports, the stock market crash in October wiped out nearly $ 500 billion in market capitalisation in the US alone.

Wall Street crash of 1929

The Wall Street crash of 1929 showed no mercy to investors as the Dow fell nearly 13% on October 28, people also call it as the Black Monday. The stock market crash was followed by nearly 12% decline the next day, which is known as Black Tuesday.

Market crash in October 2008

The US stock market saw sharp decline in October, 2008, which represented the absolute peak of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. The crisis was triggered by an economic downturn due to the collapse of the US housing market and subprime mortgage defaults.

Nifty and Sensex have showcased range bound movement in October, the analysis of last 10 year data shows. The Nifty 50 ended last October with 4.51% gain, fell 6.2% in October 2024. The benchmark index surged nearly 5.4% in Otober 2022, but saw marginal gain in October 2021. Nifty 50 surged around 3.5% in 2020 and 3.5% in 2019.