Macro worries roil stocks, Sensex logs first fall in 3 days

Slower growth in industrial output brought the fear element back for investors on Monday as both stock benchmarks lost nerve and ended with sizeable losses.

The decline -- close to 1% for the Sensex and the Nifty -- was all but pervasive across sectors.

The positive start soon gave way to nervousness as the BSE index cracked below 33,000, but finally ended at 33,033.56 -- a three week low -- down 281 points, or 0.84%.

The barometer rose a cumulative 95.75 points in the past two sessions.

The NSE Nifty settled the day lower 96.80 points, or 0.94%, at 10,224.95 after shuttling between 10,334.15 and 10,216.25 during the day.

"Domestic investors turned cautious giving more weight to slowdown in IIP to 3.8%, geopolitical tensions in the Middle-East and continued advancement in crude prices. Despite significant tax relief at the recent GST council meet, expectation of rise in CPI and WPI inflation added to the cautiousness," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd.

The rupee had its own share of travails, which lost as much as 35 paise against the dollar during the day on fears that the tax rate decision of the GST Council will have a revenue implication of Rs 20,000 crore annually.

Investors also kept an eye on Brent crude prices and the fast-developing West Asian crisis.