Mumbai: Across-the-board selling triggered by a host of negative factors including announcement of macro economic data and concerns over the progress of monsoon kept the market under pressure for the third straight week as the BSE Sensex tumbled by 343 points in the week.
However, the market might get a push next week as the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data surprisingly grew in April at an annual rate of 4.1 per cent to a two-month high, but the consumer price index (CPI) inflation rose to 5.1 per cent in May from 4.87 per cent in April.
Concerns that the US Fed will increase rates as early as September on better-than -expected jobs data, drought fears and RBI's cautious stance on economic recovery continued to hit the sentiments.
Foreign investors turned cautious in anticipation of a inclusion of Chinese A shares in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which could see them move to Chinese markets, traders said.
After major index provider MSCI Inc decided against adding Chinese domestic stocks to its widely tracked emerging markets index for now, a major overhang was lifted from the Indian stock market. Such an inclusion would have resulted in a sharp increase in China's weightage in the index, coming at an expense of other emerging markets including India.
The 30-share gauge, Sensex, began the week on a positive note to touch a high of 27,510.29 before plunging to a low of 26,307.07. Finally, it closed at an 8-month low of 26,425.30 -- a level not seen since October 17, 2014 when it had finished at 26,108.53. In straight three weeks, it has crashed by 1,532.20 points or 5.48 per cent. .
