Why the Sensex dipped below 18K

And the downfall continued.

After the Sensex shedding 1.1% during the previous week, the first trading of the current week provided another negative jolt.

The weak investor sentiment amid expectations of further rise in interest rates coupled with disappointing earnings from index heavyweights saw the BSE benchmark index plunge below the 18,000 mark and the Nifty closing below the crucial 5,400 mark.

At the close, the Sensex shed 332 points to end at 17,993 and the CNX Nifty shed 99 points to close the trade at 5,386.

In the broader markets, the midcap index lost 1.4% to close at 6,661 while the smallcap index shed 1.5% to end at 8,057, relatively outperforming the Sensex which was down 1.8%.

The markets opened in the red earlier in the day on the back of a dismal set of cues from the Asian front. Thereon the markets slid lower through the day.

The nervous opening across Europe only intensified the downfall which saw the Nifty slipping to nine week lows.

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The Asian markets closed down in the region of 1-3% each, while the CAC, FTSE and DAX have lost more than a percent each in early trades.

Vice President ( Derivatives & Technical Analyst), IIFL Wealth states that the Indian markets were technically weak and the slump in the global markets compounded the downfall.

We are currently in a sell on rise market.

On Friday, after the markets witnessed some pull back, there is tremendous selling seen today mainly in the banking space.

On the downside Nifty may slip to 5,200 and an upmove can be expected only if Nifty crosses 5,520.

Investors pulled out $1.64 billion from emerging markets equity funds last week for the first time since third week of March.

Emerging market equity funds saw outflows on renewed concerns over Greek's debt and withdrawal of economic stimulus from the Federal Reserve on cards.

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According to information available with Sebi, foreign institutional investors pulled out $998 million from the Indian market during the period.

On year-to-date analysis, commodity sector funds are still the leaders when it comes to attracting fresh money while financial sector funds have recorded the biggest outflow.

Global banking giant Goldman Sachs has said it expects inflation to remain high this summer and the Reserve Bank of India is likely to further hike interest rates by 75 basis points (bps) or more this calender year. On Saturday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that inflationary pressures may continue on account of high global commodity prices.

Capital Goods and Power indices were the main laggards for the day, down nearly 3% each while rate sensitives Bankex and Realty indices shed 2.8% each.

On the other hand, anchoring on the consumption theme, FMCG and Consumer Durables were the only indices that closed in the positive, adding 0.5% each. The movers in the FMCG space were ITC up 2% followed by Dabur which added 1.4%.

Meanwhile, BHEL down 6%, Praj Industries, Suzlon Energy and BGR Energy which shed 4% each were the draggers in the Capital Goods space.