Indian equity benchmarks extended the losing run to the fourth straight session and ended with heavy losses on Monday, dragged down by heavyweights Infosys and HDFC twins amid a weak trend in Asian markets. Markets began trade on weak note and stayed in red for whole day, as traders remained cautious as the World Bank cut its economic growth forecast for India and the whole South Asian region, citing worsening supply bottlenecks and rising inflation risks caused by the Ukraine crisis. The international lender lowered its growth estimate for India to 8% from 8.7% for the current fiscal year to March, 2023. Additional pressure came in with a private report stating that with Covid cases witnessing a rise in the national capital, traders and business owners are apprehensive that their pandemic-hit businesses might be engulfed in another wave even before recovering from losses over the past two years. Markets extended fall in afternoon deals, as India's March wholesale price index-based inflation rose to 14.55 per cent as compared to 13.11 per cent in last month. According to the data released by the industry department, the high rate of inflation in March 2022 was primarily due to rise in prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, mineral oils, basic metals, owing to disruption in global supply chain caused by Russia-Ukraine conflict. Traders overlooked the finance ministry's statement that the focus on capex in the recently announced Budget for the current fiscal year will boost manufacturing and tax revenue collections, thereby keeping India on track to becoming a $5 trillion economy. Market participants also paid no heed towards a private report stated that a normal monsoon season this year is expected to mitigate some inflationary pressures, especially being witnessed in certain food commodities. In terms of predictions, both Skymet and IMD have given a forecast for a normal Southwest Monsoon for the current year at 99 per cent and 98 per cent of the long period average (LPA) respectively. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 1172.19 points or 2.01% to 57,166.74 and the CNX Nifty was down by 302.00 points or 1.73% to 17,173.65.

The US markets ended lower on Monday as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of a slew of earnings news this week. Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Netflix, Procter & Gamble, Tesla, American Express and Verizon are among the big-name companies due to report their quarterly results in the coming days. Meanwhile, traders have also been looking ahead to the release of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, which may shed additional light on the outlook for interest rates. On the sectoral front, despite the lackluster performance by the broader markets, biotechnology stocks moved sharply lower on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index down by 3.6 percent. Significant weakness also emerged among airline stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. On the economic data front, reflecting rapidly rising interest rates combined with ongoing home price increases and higher construction costs, the National Association of Home Builders released a report showing a continued deterioration in US homebuilder confidence in the month of April. The report showed the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index fell to 77 in April from 79 in March, with the decrease matching street estimates. The housing market index declined for the fourth consecutive month, sliding to its lowest level since hitting 76 last September. The continued decrease by the housing market index came as the component charting traffic of prospective buyers tumbled to 60 in April from 66 in March.

Crude oil futures ended higher on Monday on concerns about tight supply due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and news about the shutdown of Libya's biggest oil field. Libya's National Oil Corp warned a painful wave of closures had begun hitting its facilities and declared force majeure at Al-Sharara oilfield and other sites. Meanwhile, natural gas prices soared about 10%, climbing to an over 13-year high in the process, amid concerns about an energy crunch due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and forecasts for cooler spring temperatures. Benchmark crude oil futures for May delivery rose $1.26 or 1.2 percent to settle at $108.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for June delivery surged $1.45 or 1.3 percent to settle at $113.15 (Provisional) a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended weaker against dollar on Monday, on emergence of demand for the greenback from importers. Sentiments were fragile as India's March wholesale price index-based inflation rose to 14.55 per cent as compared to 13.11 per cent in last month. According to the data released by the industry department, the high rate of inflation in March 2022 was primarily due to rise in prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, mineral oils, basic metals, owing to disruption in global supply chain caused by Russia-Ukraine conflict. On the global front, yen won a brief reprieve after hitting fresh two-decade lows from Japanese policymaker comments on Monday, even as holidays confined the U.S. dollar to narrow ranges against most other currencies. Finally, the rupee ended at 76.26 (Provisional), weaker by 7 paise from its previous close of 76.19 on Wednesday.

The FIIs as per Monday's data were net sellers in both equity and debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 5483.44 crore against gross selling of Rs 6443.93 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 517.21 crore against gross sales of Rs 1045.67 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 8.58 crore against gross selling of Rs 10.87 crore.

The US markets ended in red on Monday as worries about interest rates and inflation keep a lid on Wall Street despite some better-than-expected profit reports. Asian markets are trading mixed on Tuesday with investors weighing Chinese measures to support the economy and the prospect for faster Federal Reserve policy tightening to fight inflation. Indian markets crashed on Monday, hammered by robust selling in market heavyweights Infosys and HDFC Bank following their below-estimate results. Today, the markets are likely to get flat-to-positive start amid mixed global cues. Some support will come as the commerce department's preliminary data showed that India exported goods worth $18.79 billion during the first two weeks of April, up 37 per cent compared to the same period last year, as external demand continued to remain robust. Excluding petroleum products, the growth in this period was 23.64 per cent over the same period of 2021-22. Besides, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has launched two new portals, with an aim to improve ease of doing business, including one for registration of pesticides. Another portal is for documentation related to imports and exports of agri-products and plants. However, there may be some cautiousness as flagging risks of disruptive spillovers from geopolitical hostilities, an RBI article said India faces these challenges from a position of strength built on broadened vaccine coverage, financial sector resilience and robust exports. Traders may be concerned as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the debt piled on by the private sector during the coronavirus pandemic could lower growth for emerging markets by 1.3 percent over three years. There will be some buzz in the aviation industry stocks as Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia expressed confidence about India's aviation industry getting back to the normal pre-pandemic level. The aviation industry of India touched over four lakh domestic passengers in a day on April 18, 2022. Sugar industry stocks will be in focus as the commerce ministry said India's sugar exports increased to $4.6 billion (about Rs 35,000 crore) in 2021-22 from $1.17 billion (about Rs 9,000 crore) in 2013-14. India exported sugar to 121 countries across the globe. There will be some reaction in real estate sector stocks with a private report that private equity investment into the Indian real estate sector fell 47 per cent to $1 billion during January-March this year compared to the year-ago period, but the inflows jumped over 4.5 times from the previous quarter. There will be some important result announcements to keep the markets in action.

Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)

Nifty Top volumes

• HDFC Bank has received an approval to raise up to Rs 50,000 crore in the next one year by issuing bonds aimed at financing infrastructure and affordable housing loan requirements of the customers. 
• Maruti Suzuki is planning to launch multiple electric vehicles models in India in its bid to catch up with competitors and become a leader in the segment, despite not being present there at present. 
• TCS has launched an agile and intuitive risk-based monitoring solution for clinical trials, that enables intelligent decision making, increased compliance and improves study efficacy.
• M&M is all set to offload over 34.75 lakh shares, constituting 22.81% of the paid-up capital, in Mahindra Sanyo Special Steel, to Japan-based Sanyo Special Steel Co.