The negativity continued last week taking the markets further down on simmering domestic issues.
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Even though the markets remained flat for the initial session, later they witnessed heavy selling, which took them toward major support levels.
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The major issue was the rising inflation number. Recent food inflation was high at 18.32 per cent as against 14.44 per cent while the fuel inflation remained unchanged.

Price
The rising price of food is puncturing holes in the consumers' kitty. The banking and other rate sensitive sector stocks actually dragged the markets down on expectation that the RBI may now step in with another round of interest rate hike of around 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent. On the other hand, commodity prices retreated from the highest levels they reached at the end of last year, as the dollar showed strength against major currencies on improving economy and better manufacturing and jobs data back in the US. It is widely expected that the cement sector will remain subdued this year, which lead to major selling pressure in cement stocks like ACC, Ambuja, Grasim, L&T etc. One of the leading rating agency's reduced cement sector rating also impacted the downward move.u00a0