New Delhi, March 25 -- March 24, 2000, when stocks peaked during the internet bubble, was a watershed moment in financial history. A wave of euphoria gave way to selling that wiped out trillions of dollar in market capitalization, leaving investors poorer, but perhaps wiser.

The S&P 500 hit a record closing level of 1527.46, only to lose half its value by Oct. 9, 2002. It took seven years and two months for the index to hit bottom and return to its peak, the Dow Jones Market Data team calculates.

A spectacular rally on Wall Street, driven by the first internet companies, nearly tripled the value of the index from when the Silicon Valley sensation Netscape hit the public markets in August 1995. The market capitalization of the tech-heavy...