- Stopping SIPs during downturns misses recovery; investors should stay invested.
In February and March 2026, Indian equity markets went through one of their sharpest downturns in years. The Nifty IT fell over 21 per cent in a single month, its worst crash since 2020. Geopolitical pressure from the US-Iran conflict pushed India’s fear gauge, the India VIX, from 13.70 on March 2 all the way to 27.89 by April 1, nearly doubling in a month.
Most retail investors froze. A significant number scrambled to exit. And yet, SIP inflows in March 2026 came in at a record Rs 32,087 crore, according to AMFI data. Even in April, still a turbulent month, SIP contributions held strong at Rs 31,115 crore, up roughly 18 per cent year-on-year.
What Is SIP?
A Systematic Investment Plan, or SIP, is a method of investing a fixed amount in a mutual fund at regular intervals regardless of where the market is. Think of it as an automatic savings habit that happens to be tied to the stock market.
The keyword here is “regardless.” SIPs do not pause when stocks fall. They do not wait for the market to recover before investing. That regularity is precisely what makes them different from lump-sum investing, and it is also what makes them controversial in a crash.
The obvious question: if markets are falling, why keep putting money in?
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Buying More When Prices Drop
When stock prices fall, your fixed SIP amount buys more units of a mutual fund than it would in a rising market. Over months of consistent investing through a downturn, your average cost per unit falls. When markets eventually recover, and historically, Indian markets have always recovered, those extra units start contributing to returns.
This is not a theory. The Nifty 50 snapped a six-week losing streak in early April, jumping approximately 6 per cent in a single week as ceasefire hopes between the US and Iran emerged and crude oil prices cooled. The India VIX dropped nearly 20 per cent over five sessions to 19.2 as the panic began unwinding. Investors who had paused their SIPs during the worst weeks of March missed the early days of that recovery entirely.
Why Stopping Your SIP Right Now Is A Bad Idea
The instinct to stop investing when markets are falling is understandable. It feels like damage control. But it almost always works in reverse. You stop just as prices become cheapest, and you re-enter only after prices have risen again.
After three months of net selling, Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers in late April 2026. Domestic investors, largely supported by steady SIP flows, absorbed much of that selling pressure. DII buying, driven mostly by SIP money, kept prices stable during the worst of the FII outflow.
Meanwhile, the mutual fund industry’s total Assets Under Management (AUM) grew from Rs 73.73 lakh crore at the end of March to Rs 81.92 lakh crore by the end of April. This was a significant jump, even as equity sentiment remained fragile.
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What SIPs Cannot Do
SIPs do not make your portfolio crash-proof. During a market downturn, the value of your investment will fall; there is no way around that. What SIPs can change is how you participate through the crash, not whether you feel it.
The real question for any SIP investor is not whether markets will recover. Based on historical patterns, they will. The question is whether you will still be invested when they do.
