Opening Bell: Sensex falls below 100 points, Nifty snaps below 11,900-mark

The Indian benchmark indices opened in red on Thursday with both the Sensex and the Nifty snapping 100 and 38 points lower than Wednesday's close. 

After slumping over 300 points during the day, the BSE gauge pared some losses to settle 193.65 points, or 0.48 per cent, lower at 39,756.81. The index hit an intra-day low of 39,623.53 and a high of 39,982.10 on Wednesday with Yes Bank being the worst performer declining 3.34 per cent, after Moody’s placed the private sector lender’s ratings under review for a possible downgrade. On Thursday, too, Yes Bank continued its downward slide by 6 per cent to Rs 126 in the early trade on the BSE. 

Oil prices tumbled to five-month low on rising US stockpiles. Brent crude futures were hovering around $60.01 in early trade.

IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, Vedanta, Tata Steel, Infosys, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors too fell up to 5.75 per cent.

On the other hand, L&T, TCS, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints and Bajaj Finance rose up to 1.20 per cent.

According to experts, market mood was negative tracking weak cues from global markets amid rising uncertainty over trade talks between the US and China.

While Shanghai Composite Index was trading on a positive note, Hang Seng, Nikkei, and Kospi were trading in the red in their respective early sessions.

Bourses on Wall Street too ended lower on Wednesday. Heavy outflow of foreign funds too weighed on investor sentiment here, traders said.

(with PTI inputs)