The Sensex and the Nifty plunged nearly 1.2 per cent at the closing session on Monday, tracking weak global cues as US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen had indicated that the central bank was poised to raise interest rates this year.
Besides, profit-booking and lower-than-expected Q4 earnings by some companies too weighed on the domestic sentiment, brokers said.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex plunged 313.62 points or 1.12 per cent at 27,643.88 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty declined 88.7 points or 1.05 per cent at 8,370.25.
Barring infrastructure and oil & gas, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the red. Among them, metal index fell the most by 1.7 per cent, followed by FMCG 1.62 per cent, capital goods 0.86 per cent and IT 0.74 per cent, while infrastructure index was down 0.38 per cent and oil & gas 0.13 per cent.
Gainers, losers
Top five Sensex losers were VEDL 3.59%, ITC 3.29%, HDFC 2.7%, Tata Steel 2.58% and GAIL 2.5%, while the only four gainers were ONGC 2.12%, Bharti Airtel 1.25%, Wipro 0.41%, and M&M 0.2%.
Fed chief comments
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen had indicated on Friday that the US central bank was poised to raise interest rates this year if the world's top economy improved as expected.
Caution also prevailed ahead of gross domestic product growth data due on Friday. Domestic shares have been on a solid path so far this month, recovering from a volatile April amid continued hopes of an economic recovery.
"The worst is behind us, things should improve. The government is continuing with investment acceleration" said G. Chokkalingam, founder of Equinomics, a Mumbai-based research and fund advisory firm.
Early trade
The 30-share index fell 130.70 points or 0.46 per cent to 27,826.80 in early trade as FMCG, metal, consumer durables, auto, banking and capital goods stocks succumbed to profit-booking.
The gauge had gained 148.15 points in the previous session on Friday on renewed hopes of a rate cut.
On similar lines, the NSE Nifty dropped 40.25 points or 0.47 per cent to 8,418.70 in early trade.
Global markets
European shares fell in thin trade on Monday while the dollar held firm after US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen indicated that the central bank was poised to raise interest rates this year.
The benchmark French CAC 40 index fell 0.7 per cent by 0940 GMT. Trading volumes were thin as several markets including Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States were shut for holidays.