Mumbai, Feb 26 : Markets last week were under a lot of pressure and this was primarily on account of the Dow sending negative signals. Wednesday saw a sharp fall in markets from which there was no recovery.

At the end of the week with losses on all five days and a poor February futures expiry, markets will be under pressure from the start of the new week as Dow had yet another poor session on Friday.  BSESENSEX lost 1,538.64 points or 2.52 per cent to close at 59,463.93 points while NIFTY lost 478.40 points or 2.67 per cent to close at 17,465.80 points. The broader markets saw BSE100, BSE200 and BSE500 lose 2.59 per cent, 2.60 per cent per cent and 2.49 per cent respectively. BSEMIDCAP was down 2.05 per cent while BSESMALLCAP was down 1.65 per cent. All the sectoral indices closed with losses for the week and BANKNIFTY is now at dangerous levels. The weight of the same in NIFTY is over 40 per cent which adds to the pressure in the coming week.  The Indian Rupee gained 8 paisa or 0.10 per cent to close at Rs 82.75 to the US Dollar. Dow Jones gained on two of the five sessions and lost on the remaining three. It had a bad Tuesday and was sharply down on Friday as well. The dichotomy in the US is that jobs are being generated and unemployment is down sharply, yet this is bad news for the market.  This means that rising interest rates are not going to stop early. The street was expecting 2 rate hikes of 25 basis points before they went on a pause. Now, they expect one rate hike of 50 basis points followed by 2 or three of 25 basis points before the current calendar year ends. It is this street expectation that has made markets nervous and seen a sell-off of some sorts.  The Ukraine-Russia war has completed one year, something which was beyond imagination when it began. Now, global markets are in fine shape with European markets doing the best. This is in sharp contrast to their economies being worst hit by rising fuel and gas prices and issues of fresh fruit and vegetables hitting them even harder. Strange are the ways that markets behave.  Looking at results which have been declared for the quarter October-December 22, one sees definite signs of a slowdown or degrowth in demand in products as diverse as inner wear and paints.  Strange as it may seem but this makes one to believe that India and its economy is seeing a slowing down in demand. Rural demand has been experiencing a slow down in demand for a few quarters already and now a similar scenario is being seen as early signs from semi-urban and urban areas as well. How things will pan out, is yet to be ascertained.