Sensex drops by nearly 200 points in early trade amid weak Asian cues

Extending its losses for the second session, BSE benchmark Sensex dropped by nearly 200 points in early trade on Friday on sustained selling by foreign funds and retail investors amid weak Asian cues.

Investors turning cautious ahead of the release of US jobs data and oil prices retreating in global market also led to dampened sentiment on domestic bourses.

The 30-share index was trading lower by 199.97 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 26,359.95. The gauge had lost 92.89 points in the previous session.

All the sectoral indices led by realty, banking and consumer durables were trading in the red, falling by up to 1.07 per cent.

The NSE Nifty fell 62.15 points, or 0.76 per cent, to 8,130.75 in early trade.

Brokers said steady capital outflows by foreign funds and losses across Asia amid caution ahead of the release of US jobs data—to be released today—made the domestic equities heedful.

Shares of some auto makers were under pressure following drop in their sales in November on account of demonetisation of high value currency.

M&M, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto were trading lower by up to 0.16 per cent. Maruti Suzuki also fell 0.63 per cent despite the company posted double digit sales growth in November.

Other big losers were HDFC Ltd, Dr Reddy’s, ITC Ltd, Aani Ports, Asian Paint, L&T, Infosys, HDFC Bank,Bharti Airtel, NTPC, TCS and Power Grid, falling by up to 2.32 per cent.

Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 1.06 per cent while Japan’s Nikkei was down by 0.47 per cent in early trade today. The Shanghai Composite Index too inched lower by 0.50 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, ended 0.36 per cent higher yesterday.