The benchmark indexes in India crashed more than 2% at the opening bell after Russia recognized two rebel-controlled regions of Ukraine, deepening a simmering crisis that has torched markets across the world for many days.

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The tsunami caused by heightened tension and rumours of impending conflict has destroyed the market value of BSE-listed companies by a whopping Rs 9.1 lakh crore in only five days. The last day when Indian markets finished in the green was February 16, but the slide has been relentless since then.

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“Safe havens have rallied overnight. Yields on US treasuries have dropped about 7-8 bps at the longer end. There is a chance that the Fed may recalibrate its tightening plans given the risks to growth from geopolitical tension,” said the brokerage firm IFA Global in its morning note on Tuesday.

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The 30-stock BSE Sensex began with a loss of 1,245 points at 56,439, while the Nifty dropped 359 points to breach the critical 17,000 threshold and opened at 16,848. During the day, all other Asian indexes were down more than 1%.

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The NSE’s sector indexes were all down, with media and public sector banks suffering the most. The broader markets were also trading with losses ranging from 1.2% to 2.2%.

“The overall trend is bullish but we may have high volatility over the next month therefore short-term traders should remain light while long-term investors should look at this correction as a buying opportunity,” said Parth Nyati, Founder of Tradingo.

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The India VIX, which measures the degree of volatility traders forecast over the next 30 days, increased by 17.5% from 22.9 to 26.9 levels.

The most significant macroeconomic headwind for India is a rise in crude prices. The resulting inflation will push the Reserve Bank of India to alter its dovish monetary stance. Crude oil has increased by around 3.5% to $97 per barrel, while gold has surpassed $1,900 per ounce due to risk aversion.