In this paper, we analyse the movement of BSE Sensex over a period of twenty-four years to explore how economic and political events- both national and international- as well as other major world indices affect the Indian stock market. In the first part, we follow a statistical quality control approach with defined control limits to identify major market changes calculated on the basis of daily fluctuations. Thereafter we explain the fluctuations by relating them to various economic and political events classified under five major verticals. In the second part of our study we analysed the relationship between the returns of major world stock indices and the BSE Sensex. International economic events have led to more outliers post the subprime crisis as compared to any other types of events. We found Asian indices having better correlation with BSE Sensex in the post 2000 era, than their US peer. Our study provides important insights to market watchers and policy makers about how political and economic event affects market movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]