New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS): Indian broder equity indices tanked over 3 per cent in the past nine trading sessions (since February 14) when geo-political tensions between Russia and Ukraine began to intensify.

Besides Thursday's sharp decline, the second-biggest fall during the period was recorded on February 14 -- when Sensex and Nifty fell around 3 per cent.

During the said nine-day period, the one-off sharp rise in indices was witnessed on February 15, as attractive stock valuations brought a healthy influx of domestic institutional as well as retail funds into the market.

On Thursday, Sensex settled 4.7 per cent or 2,702 points down at 54,529 points, whereas Nifty fell 4.8 per cent or 815 points to 16,248 points, the biggest single-day fall in two years.

Much of the ongoing decline can also be attributed to heavy selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), evidently triggered by the geo-political frictions.

According to Ravi Singh, Vice President and Head of Research, Shareindia: "The selling may continue for a correction of 8-10 per cent in the benchmark indices."

Singh advised all the investors to follow a "wait and watch" strategy and avoid any fresh entry at the moment.

"Days like today (Russia-Ukraine war) remind us that consistency of thought and advice is so important and hence this is a time to appreciate asset allocation in portfolios. We always recommend keeping at least 20 per cent cash in the portfolio and to have diversification across asset classes that are less correlated with each other," said Rahul Bhutoria, Director at Valtrust Capital.

Further, Bhutoria said a substantial impact on markets and portfolios had already taken place and it is not at all a time to sell in panic.

He added that investors should look at investments keeping in mind standard deviation, drawdown, and recovery -- meaning investing in products that have a better and higher possibility of recouping the losses.