Weak Asian market cues and sharp rupee slide took their toll at the stock markets on Monday with both benchmark indices closed in the red.

Rupee touched a record low of 61.21 on dollar demand in early trade today but subsequently recovered to close at 60.62, down 40 paise compared to Friday’s closing value of 60.22 per dollar.

Going ahead rupee is likely to remain volatile according to analysts, sparking expectations of RBI refraining from a rate cut in July.

The BSE Sensex closed at 19,325 down 171 points (-0.88 per cent) from its previous close and the NSE Nifty closed at 5,812 down 56 points (- 0.96 per cent) from its previous close.

Except FMCG, IT, Tech and capital goods all sectoral indices closed in the red on the BSE led by oil and gas and PSU index which tumbled the most by about 1.94 and 1.90 per cent respectively.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head- Technical Research, Kotak Securities said: “On Monday morning market opened gap down on backdrop of weak Asian cues. Asian markets were weak on expectation of quantitative easing being possibly tapered off on good set of economic data in US."

Going ahead investors would be keenly watching out for the earnings season which kicks off with Infosys results on July 12. Meanwhile Deutsche Bank reduced the BSE index target to 21,000 from 22,500, citing faster-than-anticipated tapering down of U.S.monetary stimulus, India's high short-term external financing needs and fears over a China slowdown.

On the NSE, Indusind Bank, HCL Tech, BHEL, Reliance Infrastructure and ACC were the top gainers while BPCL, JP Associates, ONGC, M&M and Tata Motors were the top losers.

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