The GameStop short squeeze in the US spooked global markets into a risk-off week. The Nifty fell roughly 900 points across four sessions — from about 14,500 to below 13,600 — with Bank Nifty dropping nearer 3,000 points over the stretch. There was no Indian catalyst at all.

It was proof that a US meme stock — pure global contagion, not Indian news — could knock the Indian index down nearly a thousand points.

FIIs sold a record ₹8,300 crore in a single day — with gross selling estimated above ₹13,000 crore once MSCI-rebalancing-forced buying is counted, possibly the heaviest one-day foreign exodus in Indian history, beyond even COVID and Lehman levels.

The Nifty fell 700+ points intraday, Bank Nifty 2,000+ (about 5%), every one of the 50 Nifty stocks closed red, and India VIX spiked toward 30. It marked the arrival of the 'FII vs retail' battle that would define the decade — and of the monthly SIPs that quietly absorbed it.

The Delta wave hit India as three consecutive Monday crashes. 5 April: Maharashtra restrictions sent Nifty down 400+. 12 April: more restrictions, Nifty -500+. 19 April: the 'perfect storm' — COVID horror, a bitcoin crash, weak HDFC Bank results and FII selling together — broke support with Nifty touching 14,213.

Yet the far deadlier second wave took the index down only about 10%, against 40% in the first. Markets do not crash twice for the same reason — the first shock marks the scar; the repeat barely grazes it.

The Omicron variant news landed on 26 November: the Nifty fell about 600 points in a day (17,600 → 17,000) and by 20 December had shed another ~900 points in two sessions to near 16,400 — with zero Omicron deaths in India. Bank Nifty fell about 20% from its highs, while both India and US VIX spiked.

Then the market recovered decisively within weeks. It was the starkest 'fear of the event was worse than the event' demonstration of the era — the negative twin of February 2022's 'fear of war is worse than war.'