Which market was the first major exchange to collapse during the global Black Monday crash of 1987?

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange was the first major exchange to collapse during the global Black Monday crash of 1987.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell sharply on October 19, 1987, before the panic moved westward through European markets and then reached the United States. The international sequence gave the episode its global character: trading hours meant that a sell-off could pass from one financial center to another as each opened.

The New York Stock Exchange became the most famous setting because the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 22.6% on the same date. London and Tokyo also suffered substantial declines, but neither was the first major market hit. The crash was amplified by portfolio insurance, program trading, investor fear, and concerns about currency and trade imbalances. The episode helped establish that modern financial markets were closely linked, even before electronic trading became as dominant as it is today.