Sensex closes 110 pts lower on monsoon worries; IT tanks

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell more than 100 points on Monday as the market seems worried about monsoon, though the inflation eased in June compared to previous month.

The BSE benchmark was completely rangebound around its Friday's closing value since early trade, but it extended losses in last one hour of trade. Index fell 110.39 points to close at 17,103.31. Meanwhile, the NSE benchmark dropped below the 5200 to 5,197.25, down 30 points.

The Indian rupee, which recovered to 54.78 a dollar in early trade, depreciated 12 paise to 55.26 against the US dollar towards closing hours of equity market.

Met Department says monsoon may miss forecast in July and may be deficient in September. It said that the El Nino effect, a phenomenon that causes temperature variations, may emerge in August and September.

Ambareesh Baliga, COO, Way2Wealth says the inflation surely was slightly better than expectations, but all eyes are more on monsoon than the immediate inflation figures. "In case we have the monsoon still playing truant over the next two to three weeks then I suppose we are staring at difficult situation and that will make the inflation shoot up in the coming months," he reasoned.

Headline inflation declined to 7.25% for June as against 7.55% in May while April inflation has been revised upwards to 7.5% versus 7.23% (provisional).

Country's largest software services exporters TCS and Infosys tanked 3% and 2.5%, respectively. Infosys has been falling (lost 12% in three days) since Thursday after it disappointed the street with results on every count.

Top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors tumbled 2.6% after lower than expected sales numbers by Jaguar & Land Rover in June whereas top car maker Maruti Suzuki gained 1.6%.

Engineering and construction major by sales Larsen & Toubro slipped 1.5%. Private power producer Tata Power tumbled over 2%.

Among metals stocks, Tata Steel crashed 4% and Jindal Steel lost 2.7%. Sterlite Industries and Hindalco Industries were down over 1.7%.

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank fell 0.7% each whereas their rival State Bank of India gained 0.7%. The BSE Bankex was up more than 0.6% after inflation eased, but these stocks shed gains in second half of trade.

Top telecom operator Bharti Airtel topped the buying list throughout the session, rising 4%. Housing finance company HDFC rose 0.5%.

Healthcare stocks were on buyers' radar today since early trade - Dr Reddy's Labs jumped 1.8% while Cipla gained 1.2%.

Oil & gas producers Reliance Industries and ONGC were up 0.22% and 0.77%, respectively.

In the second line shares, Exide Industries was down 1.5% ahead of results today after market hours. DCB lost 3%, even after strong net profit in Q1.

Kingfisher, Lanco Infratech and TVS Motor Company were down 3-4%.

After results: MindTree declined over 2% and AP Paper Mills tanked 5.5%.

On the global front, China's main stock index ended down 1.7%, the lowest close since March 2009, as profit warnings from market heavyweights caused concerns that the slowdown in China growth may have a greater-than-expected impact on earnings. (With inputs from CNBC.com)

France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were flat, even after a rally in US markets last Friday.