Sensex dips 371 points to end at 10,042

Weakness gripped the Indian equity market on Monday as market players resorted to profit-booking after a sharp rebound in share prices in the past few days.

As selling pressure intensified in the afternoon trade, stock prices went sliding down sharply, and the Sensex, which had touched a high of 10,451 in the morning, crashed below the 10,000-mark to a low of 9,991.

Though the benchmark index managed to recover, and went past the key psychological barrier to 10,042, it still recorded a loss of 371 points or 3.5 per cent on Monday.

The 50-stock Nifty index, which touched a high of 3,060 and a low of 2,828, settled at 2,943 with a loss of 107 points.

R Sreesankar of IL&FS Investmart said, "Yesterday's fall once again demonstrated that it is too early to call whether the downward trend in the bull market is over. The market would consolidate at 9,000-10,000 levels before giving any cue about the direction."

Though global stock markets are generally nervous over fears of another interest rate hike at the forthcoming Fed Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday, yesterday's fall appeared to be more on account of domestic factors.