Indian markets today froze in early trade after the Nifty sank 10 percent soon after opening, triggering circuit breaker rules that kick in to cool down sentiment.

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The triggering of the circuit limit brought back memories of the 2008 crash, with one key difference -- the current market sell-off has been triggered by the outcome of the coronavirus while the 2008 crisis was purely an economic crisis.

What this means is several stocks have started trading at lucrative valuations even though that does not say they cannot fall further.

"This is classic capitulation playing out. This reaction is exaggerated," said Nirmal Jain, Chairman at IIFL told CNBC-TV18. He added that it would be a good time to start investing if someone had cash to buy. "Markets will recover drastically when the fear of the epidemic peaks out."

"People are selling emotionally. The situation is that of panic," said emerging markets guru Marc Faber. "In situations like this, recovery is usually fast."

Having said that, experts also say that given that the market is witnessing extreme selling momentum, buying now would be akin to catching the proverbial falling knife, as Sanjay Dutt of Quantum Securities put out.

"There's a total disconnect between value and price. You should buy deep value stocks but only if you are prepared to take another 10-20 percent hit -- and only if you are a long-term investor."

Other experts have mirrored the view.

Yesterday, Nilesh Shah of Kotak Mahindra AMC, added that investors can start dipping their toes into fresh equity investments but added that the near term outlook will be volatile, especially if a vaccine for the coronavirus takes a long time coming.

First Published:Mar 13, 2020 10:30 AM IST