Sensex wipes off 69-day fortune in just 8 days

The recent stock market meltdown, which has wiped off more than 2,100 points from the benchmark Sensex in just eight trading sessions, has reaffirmed the old saying that it takes years to build a castle and only seconds to ruin it.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share barometer index went crashing down nearly 1,112 points on Friday to hit an intra-day low of 9,826.91, registering a fall of 2,844 points from the index's life-time high of 12,671.11 scaled earlier this month on May 11.

Sensex crashes by 1,112 points; recovers

While it took just seven trading sessions to erase all the gains off the all-time high in the Sensex, the benchmark index had taken 69 sessions to reach the record high since it had first reached today's intra-day low.

The Sensex had first breached the 9,826-point level, today's low, on January 27, 2006. While considering the closing levels, today's close of 10,481.77 points marks a plunge of 2,130.61 points in just eight trading sessions from the all-time closing high of 12,612.38 points recorded on May 10 this year.

The Sensex's rise and fall: Coverage

However, the BSE benchmark index had taken 53 trading sessions to reach the 12,612.38 level after first crossing the 10,481-point level on March 1, 2006.

The recent crash in the stock market, which has seen the Sensex slipping below the 10,000-point mark today, has followed a sharp bull run on the bourses.

Earlier, the Sensex had taken just 15 trading sessions in its 1000-point jump from 11,000 to 12,000 level and only 29 trading sessions to jump from 10,000-point level to the 11,000-point mark. The Sensex had first breached the 10,000-point mark on February 6, 2006.