An evening walk down Dalal Street

It was an anti-climax for the market on Monday, as benchmarks closed nowhere near to the levels they had opened at. In fact, a sharp selloff in the last hour erased all the gains, with the market closing at low points of the day. The Nifty managed to give up 11,600, while the Sensex fell around 300 points.

While FMCG were one of the big laggards through the day, weakness among banks, along with IT, pharmaceuticals, energy, and infrastructure sectors also weighed on the indices. Investors also rushed to sell midcaps, as the Nifty Midcap shed around 0.40 percent, after rising a percent in the morning.

Both Sensex and the Nifty began the week on a strong note as investors bet positively on the strong data for June quarter. The number came in at 8.2 percent for Q1 of FY19, higher than what the Street had anticipated. However, possible concerns around trade wars and a weaker rupee spooked investors, sending them in a selling mode.

Investors may have also reacted negatively protests by foreign portfolio investors in relation to know your customer (KYC) norms set by market regulator SEBI in its April 10 circular. They have argued that no consultations were from stakeholders before framing these. CNBC-TV18 spoke to experts who said that USD 70 billion would be impacted by this circular out of USD 450 billion that FPIs mobilise currently.

Among stocks, the likes of ITC and HUL saw weak trades, which put downward pressure on the FMCG index, while ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra and Axis Bank pushed the market lower.

At the close of market hours, the Sensex fell 332.55 points or 0.86% at 38312.52, while the Nifty ended lower by 98.10 points or 0.84% at 11582.40. The market breadth is negative as 1,347 shares advanced, against a decline of 1,409 shares, while 199 shares were unchanged.

Wipro, Adani Ports and Dr Reddy’s were the top gainers, while HUL, Power Grid, and Bajaj Finance lost the most.