Fall against the Dollar and Sensex below 10k

Monday turned out to be a bad day for the Indian market - the BSE's Sensex fell below the 10,000 mark to end the day at 9,928.35, down 171.56 points from Friday. The major factor responsible for this would be that the selling pressure intensified on heavyweights like Reliance Industries and ICICI. Traders resorted to profit booking in oil, gas and banking stocks in the last hour, which resulted in the tripping of indices. The Asian markets were also subdued, and the European market saw a weak opening.

The rupee also didn't have a field day on Monday - the Indian currency declined 1.6 per cent to 48.02 against the dollar. Apparently this happened as a result of importers stepping up purchases to meet their dollar needs. There has been an apparent spurt in demand from importers, including petroleum companies, who purchased dollars to meet their month-end payment requirements. Of course, The rupee has appreciated over 8 per cent from an all-time low of 50.615 on December 2.

In other news, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has predicted that upto 25 million more people would become jobless by 2010, lending credence to International Labour Organisation's forecast that the total unemployed people at the end of 2009 would be around 210 million. Not a very exciting prospect.