Indian equity shares closed at their lowest in more than three-and-a-half months on Monday, with the NSE index falling below its 200-day moving average for the first time in nearly 15 months, led by declines in blue-chips on continued worries over retrospective taxes and lower-than-expected January-March earnings so far.

Key US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) starting tomorrow and April derivatives contract expiring this week also led the traders to adopt a cautious approach.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex plunged 260.95 points or 0.95 per cent at 27,176.99 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty dropped 91.45 points or 1.1 per cent at 8,213.30.

All BSE sectoral indices ended significantly in the red. Among them, realty index was the worst-hit and was down 3.96 per cent, followed by healthcare 3.21 per cent, oil & gas 2.48 per cent and consumer durables 2.17 per cent.

Top five BSE gainers were Maruti 3.02%, SSLT 2.37%, Wipro 1.91%, Coal India 0.41% and Tata Motors 0.39%, while the major losers were Bharti Airtel 3.11%, SBIN 3.08%, Dr Reddy's 3.01%, BHEL 2.87% and HDFC 2.64%.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth Rs 775.46 crore last Friday, as per provisional data.

European markets

European shares edged lower on Monday, with persistent concerns about Greece’s debt situation prompting some investors to take profits after recent strong gains.

Asian markets

Asian shares scaled seven-year highs following stellar earnings from a few US hi-tech giants, but investors were cautious ahead of central bank meetings this week in the US and Japan and on deadlock in creditors' talks with Greece.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.7 per cent while Japan's Nikkei was flat.

Red-hot mainland Chinese shares soared, with Shanghai composite index rising 2.1 per cent to seven-year highs on hopes of more monetary stimulus and launch of infrastructure projects linked to China's 'Modern Silk Road' plan.

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