Bloodbath in equities, Sensex down by 1,457 pts

NEW DELHI: Domestic equity indices witnessed bloodbath on Monday as 40-year high inflation reading in the US triggered selloffs across the board.

The rising inflation in the US also leads to the possibility of an even more aggressive policy tightening by the US central bank in the upcoming policy review meeting.

With Monday's slump, the domestic indices declined for six out of the past seven sessions.

Sensex closed at 52,846.70 points, down 1,456.74 points or 2.68 per cent, whereas Nifty closed at 15,774.40 points, down 427.40 points or 2.64 per cent.

For fresh cues, the market participants would await India's retail inflation data for May, which is due later on Monday evening.

The retail inflation in India remained above the 6 per cent upper tolerance limit of the central bank's for a fourth month in a row due to high fuel and food prices amidst war in Ukraine.

Analysts believe the inflationary trend had remained above 6 per cent in May too.

"On the equity market outlook, while we believe volatility may remain in the near term, the recent trough gives an opportunity to the long-term investors to load up on quality companies with sustainable growth visibility," said Pankaj Pandey, Head - Research at ICICIdirect.

Besides, domestic currency rupee breached past the Rs 78 mark for the first time ever on Monday and hit a fresh lifetime low against per US dollar.

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