Indian barometer gauges witnessed blood bath with both the major indices losing around one and a half percentage points and ending below their crucial 7,400 (Nifty) and 24,300 (Sensex) levels. After listless near their neutral lines for most part of the day's trade, domestic gauges crashed like house of card in the last leg of trade, as uncertainty over the US Fed stance led to a global sell-off. Further, investors opted to remain on sidelines ahead of the announcement of key macro-economic data that includes December quarter gross domestic data (GDP), consumer inflation data (CPI) for the month of January. Market participants failed to get any sense of relief with IMF chief Christine Lagarde's statement that she hoped Indian Government would be able to implement a series of 'critically important' economic reforms including GST for unleashing the country's growth potential. Also, traders failed to draw any solace with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that India continues to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but there is still potential to grow at a much faster pace. Finance Minister has further said that the Centre and states need to work together to put the country on a high growth path even as states pitched for higher allocation to meet additional outgo towards pay revision of their employees. Selling got accelerated after European counters made a weak start, though major Asian indices remained closed. Back home, selling was both brutal and wide-based as none of sectoral indices, barring realty and consumer durables, on BSE were spared. Counters, which featured in the list of worst performers, include Software, technology and oil and gas. Software space edged lower tracking the sharp decline in technology shares on the Nasdaq. Steel and banking counters, which gained momentum after the government set a minimum import price for steel products to check dumping from countries such as China and South Korea, too edged lower as investors booked profit in last leg of trade. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined by 329.55 points or 1.34% to 24287.42, while the CNX Nifty dropped by 101.85 points or 1.36% to 7387.25. 

The US markets closed lower on Monday, with the S&P 500 posting its lowest close since April 2014 amid a fresh drop in crude oil prices, jitters over European banks and continuing fears of a global economic slowdown. A fresh drop in oil prices amid continuing fears about the global oversupply of crude weighed on materials stocks, the worst performer on the S&P 500. Financials were the second-worst-performing sector on the S&P 500, as ultralow interest rates and widening credit spreads fueled concerns about banks' balance sheets. There is no data scheduled for Monday or any Fed speeches and the week will end with retail sales data. US retail sales figures will meanwhile give clues to the state of consumer confidence in the world's largest economy, as will US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony to the House Financial Services Committee scheduled on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 177.92 points or 1.10 percent to 16,027.05, the Nasdaq was down 79.39 points or 1.82 percent to 4,283.75 while the S&P 500 dropped 26.61 points or 1.42 percent to 1,853.44.  

Crude oil futures slumped on Monday and once again slipped below $30 a barrel, after a meeting between oil ministers from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela over the weekend reportedly accomplished curtailment of production. Benchmark crude oil futures for March delivery was down by $1.18 or 3.80 percent to $29.70 a barrel after trading in a range of $29.57 and $31.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for April delivery closed at $32.87, declined by $1.19 or 3.48 percent on the ICE.

Extending its weakness for the second straight day, Indian rupee depreciated against dollar on Monday due to increased demand for dollar from importers. Besides, strengthening of dollar against other currencies overseas and weakness in the domestic equity market too pressurized the domestic unit. Meanwhile, investors remained cautious ahead of the key gross domestic product (GDP) data for the third quarter (October-December) of 2015-16 due later in the day. Investors failed to draw any solace from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that India continues to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but there is still potential to grow at a much faster pace. On the global front, dollar rose against the euro and yen as investors looked toward Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's statement for signs of whether markets are underestimating the odds of a near-term interest-rate increase. Finally, the rupee ended at 67.94, 29 paise weaker from its previous close of 67.65 on Friday.

The FIIs as per Monday's data were net sellers in equity and in debt segments both. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 3139.08 crore against gross selling of Rs 3606.57 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 879.48 crore with gross sales of Rs 1346.24 crore.     

The US markets slumped in last session, extending the sharp move to the downside seen last Friday after the crude prices moved lower, while some traders stayed on the sidelines amid a lack of major US economic data. The Asian markets are still not trading in full strength and those which are trading are showing deep cuts, with Japanese market plunging by close to 5%. The Indian markets mainly triggered the decline in equity markets after showing a sharp decline in last session. Today, the start is going to be no different and markets will get a gap-down start tailing the feeble global cues. Traders will also be concerned with India's economy growing by 7.3 percent in the third quarter ended December 2015, compared to 7.7 percent growth in the second quarter. However, Central Statistics Office (CSO) has said that Indian economy will grow at a 5-year high of 7.6 percent in the fiscal ending March, compared with 7.2 percent a year earlier, overtaking a slowing China, on the back of improvement in manufacturing and farm sectors. Traders may also get some support with a private report stating that consumer sentiments in India rose for the first time in the last four months by 1.2 percent to 109.8 in January as households have been relatively upbeat about the purchasing environment. There will be lots of earnings announcements to keep the markets buzzing.

Support and Resistance: NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex

Nifty Top volumes

• Wipro has won an IT infrastructure transformation contract from the ASSA ABLOY Group, headquartered in Sweden.
• Dr. Reddy's Laboratories' US subsidiary, Promius Pharma, LLC, US, has received approval for Sernivo Spray, 0.05% from the US Food and Drug Administration.
• Coal India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Oil Corporation at Kolkata for manufacturing of Bulk Explosives.
• State Bank of India has entered into partnership with travel firm Thomas Cook to offer a recurring deposit to bank's customers to save for their future holidays.
• HCL Technologies has launched Internet of Things Incubation Center in Redmond, Washington, USA, designed to leverage Microsoft Azure IoT Suite to accelerate enterprise IoT adoption.