Budget,credit policy,election overhang dips Sensex by 2.9% in Mar

The other major loser was Shanghai Composite in China that fell by 2.1 per cent.

The 30-scrip Sensex at the BSE has fallen by 2.9 per cent till date this month after having risen sharply by almost 15 per cent in January and February. Even as both the European and the US markets have done well in March so far,back home it has been domestic factors that weighed more on the markets resulting in the domestic indices taking a beating.

The Sensex was only second to Hang Seng in Hong Kong among major global indices as it fell the most by 3.6 per cent in March. The other major loser was Shanghai Composite in China that fell by 2.1 per cent.

In the same period,however,the Dow Jones index was up by 2.2 per cent,Germanys Dax by 4.4 per cent,while the Frances CAC 40 was up by 3.6 per cent. Nikkei in Japan has risen by 4.3 per cent.

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March has been a month of domestic events,which have led to movements not coinciding the global markets. However we are not significantly way-off, said Pankaj Pandey,head of research at ICICIdirect.com.

Two companies Reliance Industries and ONGC having a combined weightage of 13.44 per cent in the Sensex have fallen by over 7 per cent during the month. Experts say that domestic events such as election results,credit policy,Budget announcements did not enthuse confidence in the markets leading to weak performance.

The 20 per cent cut in the securities transaction tax failed to cheer up markets,and the increased cess on domestic upstream oil companies from Rs 2,500 per metric tonne to Rs 4,500 per metric tonne resulted in a correction in ONGC,RIL,Cairn India and Oil India stocks.

The markets were guided by domestic factors and there was not much positive except for the CRR cut that led to some gains, said Sudip Bandyopadhyay,CEO and MD,Destimoney Securities. However now we will be guided by global factors.