Sensex, Nifty decline in early trade

Benchmark stock indexes fell in early trading on Friday, extending the previous day’s decline, in line with the weak trend in Asian markets and fresh foreign money inflows out.

Rising interest rates worldwide also dampened investor sentiment.

Markets also fell on profit-taking after the recent rally, with the BSE gauge hitting a record intraday peak of 63,601.71 on Thursday.

BSE Sensex shares fell 248.57 points to 62,990.32 points. The NSE Nifty Index fell by 89.3 points, to 18,681.95.

From the Sensex package, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Power Grid, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finserv, HCL Technologies, and Bajaj Finance were the main laggards.

The top gainers were Asian Paints, NTBC, ICICI Bank, Party Airtel and Nestle.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading lower.

US markets ended mixed on Thursday.

“after Sensex sets record highs, market momentum slowed. The mood in the markets right now is not bullish globally. The big wall of concern remains high interest rates. After a 25bp rate hike by the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England surprised yesterday with a 50bp rate hike.

“The message from the major central banks, reiterated by the Fed in its recent testimony to Congress, is that they will not give up on containing inflation and there is a long way to go before the 2 percent inflation target is reached.” VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, fell 0.70 percent to $73.62 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth ₹693.28 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

BSE Sensex fell 284.26 points, or 0.45 percent, to settle at 63,238.89 on Thursday. The Nifty Index fell by 85.60 points, or 0.45 percent, to close at 18,771.25.