NEW DELHI: The S&P BSE Sensex plunged as much as 946 points, or 3.3 per cent, in the month of April to post its second consecutive monthly drop, led by declines in blue-chip names such as Wipro, Infosys, Hero MotoCorp and HDFC.

Investor wealth on BSE-listed firms, measured by market capitalisation, slipped by Rs 1.78 lakh crore. At the close of Thursday's trading session, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 99,70,671 crore, down 1.78 lakh crore from Rs 101,49,289.97 crore reported on 31 March 2015.On Thursday, the 30-stock Sensex ended above the crucial level of 27,000, while the broader 50-share Nifty held on to 8,200; even though it slipped below 8,150 in intraday trade.Sensex at 27,011.31; down 214.62 points. Nifty @ 8,207.10; down 32.65 points.For the week, the index lost 426 points or 1.5 per cent for the week ended 30 April, while the Nifty plunged 123 points or 1.49 per cent in the same period. For the month, the 50-share Nifty index has plunged 309 points or 3.6 per cent.The rupee slipped nearly 2 per cent in April, to post its biggest monthly loss since September 2014. Concerns over retrospective taxation for foreign investors hurt the rupee, Reuters reported.Continued sales by foreign portfolio investors amid fresh worries on retrospective taxes MAT kept investors on the sidelines in the month of April.Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have dragged the government to court over the MAT levy and five of them have filed writ petitions against the Income Tax Department at the Bombay High Court.Apart from that, muted results by India Inc for the quarter ended March 31, and the land acquisition bill weighed on sentiment.Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's government has delayed a bill that will make it easier for industry to buy farmland, following anger over rising rural distress and the suicide of a farmer in India's capital, said the Reuters report.Overseas investors have sold shares worth over $1.2 billion in the last eleven sessions, excluding Daiichi Sankyo's share sale in Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Reuters reported. Bank Nifty can show momentum in the coming few days. Let us not forget that the Nifty remains extremely oversold on the short to intraday charts. So there could be some kind of stronger short covering happening over here.The level to watch on the Nifty would be around 8300 to 8310, which is where the last couple of bounce backs have ended. We might actually get a 120-point kind of pullback, but if that is being crossed, it might be a slightly more sustainable and upside extending kind of move.We need to ride on this correction. Markets have come down and now there are better entry points for investors to enter now. Our view is that we are going to see a weak earnings season for the March quarter.We are expecting earnings to start moving up on a back-ended basis in FY16, but FY17 could be a better year, and therefore if one is investing in the market right now, you will have to stretch your numbers to FY17 to see value in the market.We are very bullish on emerging market equities and the big story is that the global investors are very underweight on EM equities. Local investors are also underweight on many of these countries with equities offering better value than fixed income or bank deposits.So the story is rising in emerging markets and then a difficult judgment call about what else can outperform over the shorter term.So when we think about the Indian story and market going higher, we may change our ratings because we find a better opportunity elsewhere with the higher upside. But, the medium to long-term story for India still remains very good.Near-term triggers are missing and the market is expected to consolidate. Factors that have led to a change in investors' sentiment include continued lack of visibility on earnings revival, concerns that recent unseasonal rains may lead to higher food/vegetable prices and inflation , thus slowing down future rate cuts, perceived slowdown in government's economic initiatives and concerns on the MAT issue for FIIs.According to him, earnings growth is likely to accelerate in FY16.It is very difficult to comment on the market in the short term, particularly when liquidity is a major factor not just in India, but globally as well as markets have been driven by liquidity. But what is easier to look at is the economy and the earnings cycle and that is where we are relatively more confident that the weakness is likely to persist at least from another two-three quarters.From fundamental perspective, the weakness should continue for another two-three quarters. You never know that a sudden gush of liquidity could take the market upwards again, but fundamentally we are set for more weakness.