THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS AND ITS IMPACT ON THE

In the modern world, no economy can flourish without an efficient financial system. The financial system plays the role of an intermediary by facilitating movement of funds from the savers to users, and thereby increases the efficiency of economic resources allocation and distribution. A stock market aims to mobilize the savings, channel them into productive sectors, encourage savings culture that contributes to the country’s economic growth, and facilitates wider access to resources. Today, stock markets are considered as economic barometers or indicators of the economic events that would unfold in the near future. Stock markets are one of the most complex and dynamic organizations in the modern world. They can be quiet volatile. The reasons for the fall or rise in the value of a stock or securities can be varied and complex. More often, stock values are affected directly or indirectly by a number of factors and events. Since 2007, the world economy has been experiencing one of the worst financial crises since the great depression of the 1930’s.The global financial crisis which started with housing market crash in the United States in 2007-2008, has in no time engulfed the entire world. While the US economy started showing signs of recovery from late 2009 onwards, the current EUROZONE crisis (European sovereign debt crisis 2009-2012) has only added fuel to the already raging fire. As such, the scale and intensity of the current crisis has been unprecedented. The present paper attempts to study the effect of the current global economic crisis on the stock markets in India.