Sensex Declines By Over 300 Points, Nifty Below 17,800 Amid Weak Global Cues

The Indian equity benchmarks opened on a negative note on Friday as indicated by the Nifty Futures traded at Singapore Exchange. At 9:21 am, BSE Sensex declined by 349 points or 0.58 per cent at 59,584, whereas the Nifty 50 index slipped 101 points or 0.57 per cent at 17,775. 

The broader market indices were also trading in the red. While the Nifty Midcap 50 index slipped 0.20 per cent at 8,815, the Nifty Midcap 100 index plunged 0.16 per cent at 32,365. Barring the stocks of pharma, real estate, healthcare and consumer durables, all other sectoral indices were trading in red, with IT, auto, media and financial services stocks declining between 0.50 to 1.49 per cent. 

On Thursday, the US stocks traded lower. The S&P500 index was trading 44.66 points or 1.1 per cent lower at 3,901, whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 173.27 points or 0.6 per cent to 30,961. While the Nasdaq slipped 167.32 points or 1.4 per cent to 11,552,  the Russell 2000 for smaller companies declined 13.23 points or 0.7 per cent to 1,825.

Meanwhile, the Asian stocks were trading lower on Friday following the slump in shares of Wall Street. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 plunged 1.10 per cent, whereas South Korea’s KOSPI declined 0.54 per cent. Singapore’s Hang Seng index was trading 1.10 per cent lower. China’s Shanghai Composite plunged 0.90 per cent, whereas Shenzhen Component was trading lower at 0.72 per cent. 

Back home, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Twins, Sun Pharma, Asian Paint, Titan, Tata Steel and the State Bank of India were amongst the top gainers, whereas Mahindra and Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Wipro, Axis Bank, Infosys, HDFC and HCL Tech were amongst the top losers.