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Market crash: Here's what you MUST do

The markets opened the year with a bang, crossed the 21,000 mark, and then all hell broke loose as on January 21, it fell a record 1,408 points to close at 17,605. Trading was suspended for an hour on Tuesday too, when the market crashed to a low of 15,532 points.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram blamed global market woes fuelled by US recession fears for the market mayhem. Urging investors to stay calm, he assured them that the nothing was wrong with the health of the Indian economy. But that's hardly any consolation for those who lost more than Rs 6 lakh crore (Rs 6 trillion) in a single day's trading.

While it's natural for you to be unnerved by these figures, being panicky will not help you. Actually it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy good stocks with strong fundamentals, but be very careful while doing so.

So here is a list of do's and don't to help you navigate your way in the stock market.

Text: rediff Business Desk

Investors watch in awe share prices on the digital stock ticker outside the Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai. Share prices tumbled, as local and foreign investors dumped blue-chip firms. A possible recession in the US and massive demand for margin payments by shareholders who had bought equities on credit had led to a wave of selling.

Photograph: Pal Pillai/AFP/Getty Images

Also read: The 10 biggest falls in Sensex history

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