The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex fell by 173 points in the opening trade on Friday extending yesterday's losses on continued sell-off by funds, sparked by a weak trend on other Asian bourses.
The 30-share Sensex, which had lost 101.07 points in the previous trading session, plunged 173.68 points, or 1.06 per cent to 16,154.16 points.
The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty shed 68.65 points, or 1.40 per cent to 4,819.10 points.
Brokers said sentiments on the domestic bourses were dampened by weak trend on the other Asian markets after the US Federal Reserve surprised everyone by hiking the interest rate on emergency loans to banks, triggering selling by funds.
They said stocks of metals, realty and banking suffered the most, dragging the Sensex down.
The BSE metal index was down by 1.55 per cent to 15,959.07 as Sterlite Industries fell by 2.41 per cent to Rs 750, Tata Steel by 1.46 per cent to Rs 568.90, Hindalco by 1.51 per cent to Rs 149.80 and NMDC by 3.25 per cent to Rs 446.90.
Reliance Industries eased by 1 per cent to Rs 987.40, State Bank of India by 1.54 per cent to Rs 1,908.70, HDFC Bank by 0.81 per cent to Rs 1,670 and ICICI Bank by 0.85 per cent to Rs 832.15.
{{/usCountry}}Reliance Industries eased by 1 per cent to Rs 987.40, State Bank of India by 1.54 per cent to Rs 1,908.70, HDFC Bank by 0.81 per cent to Rs 1,670 and ICICI Bank by 0.85 per cent to Rs 832.15.
{{/usCountry}}The Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down nearly 2 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei shed 0.74 per cent in the morning trade today.