Why Stock market crash today: Indian equity benchmark indices BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 registered a massive decline on Monday. The BSE Sensex fell over 1,100 points while the Nifty 50 dropped below the 24,000 mark. At 10:53 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 1,171 points or 1.47% lower at 78,552.73. The Nifty 50 was at 23,918.00, down 386 points or 1.59%.

Indian stock markets opened on a negative note, with banking, financial, and IT sectors recording losses. Investor sentiment remained cautious due to the upcoming US presidential election and possible Federal Reserve rate adjustments.

The total market value of BSE-listed companies fell by Rs 8.44 lakh crore to Rs 439.66 lakh crore in early trade, according to an ET report.

Today's rising and falling stocks.

Key losers included Reliance Industries, Infosys, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Sun Pharma, which collectively pulled the Sensex down over 420 points. Additional pressure came from L&T, Axis Bank, TCS, and Tata Motors. Various sectoral indices, including Nifty bank, auto, financial services, IT, pharma, metal, realty, consumer durables, and oil & gas, declined between 0.5% and 1.7%. India's VIX rose 5.2% to 16.73.

Why Stock Market Crash Today: Why did BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 fall today?

1. The upcoming US presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump has created uncertainty. The election results could influence the policies of the US Federal Reserve and subsequently impact Indian interest rates. "In the next few days, markets globally will be focused on the US presidential elections and there could be volatility in the near term in reaction to the election results. However, this is likely to be short-lived, and economic fundamentals such as US growth, inflation, and Fed action will dictate the market trend," said Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, at Geojit Financial Services.

2. The Federal Reserve's November 7 policy meeting has increased market uncertainty, with expectations of a possible rate cut influencing investor behavior.

3. Lower-than-expected Q2 corporate earnings have weighed on market sentiment. "The Indian market is facing challenges due to subdued earnings growth. Q2 results indicate that Nifty EPS growth may fall below 10% in FY25, which will make current valuations of around 24 times estimated FY25 earnings difficult to sustain. FIIs may continue to sell in this difficult earnings growth environment, capping any upside in the market," Vijayakumar said.

4. Oil prices rose more than $1 on Monday morning after OPEC+ postponed production hikes in December. Brent futures rose $1.18 (1.61%) to $74.28 a barrel, while WTI crude rose $1.20 (1.73%) to $70.69. OPEC+ deferred its planned 180,000 bpd hike due to weak demand and rising non-OPEC+ supply.