New Delhi, Feb. 26 -- The questions I get these days often are along the lines of "What should I do about my portfolio now?" or "Should I get out of the market?" and "Should I stop my SIPs?" Before I tackle these questions, let us look at what has happened in the stock market in the recent past and why there is blood on the street.

The first striking aspect is the substantial divergence between the moves of market indices and those of stocks in the last few months. If the Sensex is down about 12% from its peak and even the SmallCap index is down "only" 23%, why does it feel so much worse?

Taking data from Mint dated 19 February 2025, the devil lies in the details. Although the indices appear to have declined moderately, the impact is mo...