Continuing its slide for the third straight session, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index Sensex lost nearly 118 points in opening trade on Friday on increased capital inflows by funds and retail investors, triggered by weak global markets.
Sentiments also dampened on fears that the
government might step in to check the rush of foreign funds.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 117.71 points to 16,667.94 points in opening trade. The BSE barometer lost 265 points in the past two sessions.
The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty moved down by 42.95 points to 4,946.05 points.
Brokers said sentiments on the domestic bourses turned weak following overnight losses on the US stock markets and weak trends on the other Asian markets in early trade today.
Besides, continued profit booking by speculators also attributed to fall in stock prices, they said.
Among prominent losers, Reliance Industries fell by 0.40 per cent to Rs 2,073.70, Infosys by 0.43 per cent to Rs 2,399, Tata Steel by 0.34 per cent to Rs 535.50, Reliance Infra by 1.14 per cent to Rs 1092.70, State Bank of India by 1.17 per cent to Rs 2,253.80 and ICICI Bank by 1.42 per cent to Rs 873 and Sterlite 0.58 per cent to Rs 840.15.
The Hong Kong's Hang Seng index and Japan's Nikkei were down by almost one per cent in early trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Averaged ended 0.90 per cent down in yesterday's trade.