Caution ahead of Thursday’s derivatives expiry and next week’s RBI monetary policy as well as choppy trading worldwide led to the Nifty and the Sensex losing over 1.3 per cent of their value on Monday.

The Nifty fell 101 points to 7615, while the Sensex closed 371 points down at 24966 .

Dipen Shah, Senior Vice-President & Head, Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities, said: “Likely low participation from FIIs led to some weakness in the markets. Going ahead, markets will watch out for the all-important RBI policy meeting on April 5, post which quarterly results will dictate the stock-specific trends. We will watch out for legislative action in the second half of the Budget session, which will have important implications for the market.”

Foreign portfolio investors were net buyers of equities worth ₹2,043 crore while DIIs offloaded equities in the net, amounting to ₹2,494 crore. Retail investors were net sellers to the tune of ₹5 crore.

Jayant Manglik, President, Retail Distribution, Religare Securities, said, “Participants were in profit-taking mood from the beginning, tracking mixed global cues and weakness in rupee against the US dollar.” Volatility was high during Monday’s trading session with the volatility index India Vix closing at 17.4850, up 6.97 per cent.

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