Sensex closes 129 pts lower on profit booking, global cues

Mumbai: Indian equity benchmarks and the rupee fell on Monday following negative global cues. Investors remain worried about global economic growth after sluggish US jobs data and China's inflation fell to 29-month low. Even the Ketan Parekh's stock market scam news also dampened the sentiment.

The profit booking may be another reason behind today's sell-off. The BSE benchmark dropped 129.14 points to close at 17391.98 and the NSE benchmark slipped 41.80 points to 5,275.15.

It is surely profit taking, says Ambareesh Baliga, COO of Way2Wealth. "Crossing that 5,350-5,400 levels are going to be quite difficult unless we have some good dose of positive news that again I don’t think will come too soon. So people are losing a bit of patience," he explained.

The BSE benchmark dropped 129.14 points to close at 17391.98 and the NSE benchmark slipped 41.80 points to 5,275.15.

He feels the next set of good news can happen only post July 19 (RBI policy day).

The Indian rupee hit an intraday low of 56.06, but got recovered to 55.84 against the US dollar, down 44 paise at 15:31 hours IST. Excessive disappointment or hope build-up is adding to the rupee weakness, says Moses Harding of IndusInd Bank.

France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were down 0.4 per cent each as investors are not hopeful of progress on the Eurozone debt crisis at a meeting of finance ministers later in the day in Brussels.

The euro fell to a two-year low of 1.2225 to the dollar in early Asian trade, but did recover slightly to 1.2290 a dollar.

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)