Market stands firm like Mumbai

The indomitable courage shown by the citizens of Mumbai rubbed off on the market on Thursday. The benchmark BSE Sensex trended upward throughout the day, till news of a 19 percent rainfall deficit came in and saw stocks fall by over 200 points to close 22 points above Wednesday’s close.

This is not the first time markets have ignored terrorist attacks. Since 1993, of the 14 major terrorist strikes, only twice markets have fallen by over 2 percent on the day just after the attack. This loss too was recouped within a week of the assault.

The terror strike at Parliament happened during market hours. Hence, the reaction was immediate. The market dropped sharply after the news broke, but when it transpired that members of Parliament were safe, market got its bounce back.

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[caption id=“attachment_41710” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Resilience of Indians, especially the working and business classes, seems to be at work. PTI”]  [/caption]

Even when terrorists entered Mumbai through sea in November 2008, Indian Hotel, the owner of the Taj Group of hotels, which bore the brunt of the attack, fell for two days, but recovered the lost ground within a month.

Resilience of Indians, especially the working and business classes, seems to be at work. More than that, what is also working in favour of markets is the fact that they are getting more and more rational and filtering out emotions. This explains why it’s business as usual for people on the road as well as for the market.

As markets reflect the sentiment of people, ending the day on a positive note can come as a big morale-booster.