Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said that the markets were in a downward spiral because of global factors and not the the Long Term Capital Gains Tax that was reintroduced in the Union Budget, PTI reported. Jaitley made the remarks on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi.

Both the benchmark BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 opened to heavy losses for the second straight trading session since the Budget was presented on February 1. The Sensex closed 309.59 points lower at 34,757.16, and the National Stock Exchange’s Nifty 50 fell 94.05 points to 10,666.55.

On Friday, the markets experienced their steepest fall since November 2016, with the Sensex plunging over 800 points and the Nifty shedding more than 200 points.

The finance minister pointed out that the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the United States too lost 2.54% at the end of trade on Friday.