Sensex drops 185 points to open below 65,000; Nifty in red at 19,300

Sensex drops 185 points to open below 65,000; Nifty in red at 19,300

Equity benchmark indices fell in early trade on Friday amid bearish global cues and fresh foreign fund outflows.

A bird flies past a screen displaying the Sensex results on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai. (REUTERS)

Markets also declined as IT stocks slipped.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 297.62 points to 64,853.40. The NSE Nifty dipped 88.75 points to 19,276.50.

From the Sensex pack, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Nestle, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv were the major laggards.

Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti, ICICI Bank and ITC were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the negative territory.

The US markets ended lower on Thursday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.13 per cent to USD 84.23 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹1,510.86 crore on Thursday after a day's breather, according to exchange data

The BSE benchmark had declined 388.40 points or 0.59 per cent to settle at 65,151.02 on Thursday. The Nifty slipped 99.75 points or 0.51 per cent to end at 19,365.25.