The Sensex and the Nifty began the week with a huge sell-off, as investor reaction to the Union Budget delivered on Friday continued, along with global weakness. The Sensex was trading lower by a staggering 850 points, while the Nifty dropped 275 points in trade.

Strong jobs data in the US, belied hopes of a rate cut and tensions in Western Asia, led to a spike in crude prices. Reports that Deutsche Bank will pull out of global equities sales and trading, scale back investment banking and slash thousands of jobs as part of a sweeping restructuring plan to improve profitability also impacted sentiments.

Leading the set of losers in trade were the 2-wheeler stocks like Hero Motor Corp and Bajaj Auto. The lack of impetus in the budget for 2-wheeler manufacturers and auto stocks, saw some other shares like Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra too falling sharply.

Heavyweights like the HDFC twins and TCS also lost ground in trade. PNB fell a huge 8 per cent after reports that the bank had detected a fraud of nearly Rs 3,000 crores by Bhushan Steel and Power. Yes Bank was the top gainer in trade and the stock surged a huge 5 per cent to Rs 93, on hectic short covering.

Banking stocks were extremely volatile in trade today. Meanwhile, the Indian rupee was trading lower in trade, against the U.S. dollar after rallying for 10 consecutive trading sessions.

Asian markets were trading with substantial losses, led by the Hong Kong's Hang Sang and the Japanese Nikkei. It is likely that the Indian markets would continue to remain volatile ahead of the earnings season.

GoodReturns.in