Markets opened in the red on Thursday taking cues from Asian peers.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was trading 150 points, or 0.40 per cent, lower at 38,154 level in the early morning deals. On NSE, the broader Nifty50 was testing 11,300-mark, down 51 points or 0.46 per cent.
YES Bank (up 24 per cent), Tata Motors (1.6 per cent), and Hero Motocorp (up 1 per cent) were the top gainers at the 30-share index, while Axis Bank (down 4per cent), Bharti Airtel (down 2.5 per cent), and Sun Pharma (down 2 per cent) slipped the most in the morning deals.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-cap and S&P BSE Small-cap indices shed 0.42 per cent and 0.56 per cent, respectively.
Sectorally, only IT and auto counters were trading higher. Nifty Bank index slipped nearly 350 points, or 1.21 per cent, to trade at 28,378 level. Nifty Metal (down 2 per cent), Nifty Pharma (down 1.5 per cent), and Nifty Private Bank index (down 1.3 per cent) were the top laggards. Meanwhile, Nifty Auto index was up 0.46 per cent.
GLOBAL CUES
Global stocks tumbled after the United States opened a new trade war front by saying it will impose tariffs on $7.5 billion of goods from the European Union. This added to the already subdued sentiment from growing global growth fears as US' employment and manufacturing data suggested that the U.S.-China trade war is taking an increasing toll on the American economy.
Wall Street’s main indexes suffered their sharpest one-day declines in nearly six weeks on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.86 per cent, while the S&P lost 1.79 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.56 per cent. Asian stocks slumped overnight. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.38 per cent. Japan's Nikkei stock index dropped 1.96 per cent and Australian shares declined 2.19 per cent.
Weak economic data weighed on oil prices. Brent crude futures were last down 2 per cent at $57.70 a barrel.
(With inputs from Reuters)
