Both the Sensex and Nifty are still sulking.
After shedding 840 points and 250 points respectively on Friday, the Sensex and Nifty continued to bleed at the start of the trading week on Monday too.
The Sensex was down over 269.95 points at 34796.80 around 12:30 PM, while the Nifty was down 86.05 points at 10674.55.
On Sensex, there were only 842 Advances against 1786 Declines with 155 Unchanged.
The big gainers included PC Jeweller, rebounding from what its management had termed "panic reaction", and Polaris.
The losers included Vakrangee, Whirlpool and Mindtree
The Long Terms Capital Gains Tax imposed in the budget has been cited as a reason behind the fall, as also the 10% distribution tax on equity mutual funds.
Noted economist Swaminathan Aiyar, though, felt that it was general disappointment with the economic roadmap laid out by the budget that was to blame. "Only a small part of this (fall in markets) was due to the re-introduction of long-term capital gains on shares at 10%. This is a very moderate measure, since capital gains up to January 31 will be tax-free. Corporate tax was cut to 25% for companies with sales of up to Rs 250 crore, but this left out the big companies who matter most. The Sensex crash reflects unease with the overall direction of economic policy," he wrote in his Sunday column for the Times of India
