Markets fall sharply in early trade; Sensex tumbles 817 points

Benchmark indices fell sharply in early trade on Monday, with the Sensex tumbling nearly 817 points amid weak global market trends and foreign fund outflows.

Falling for the fourth day running on Monday, the 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 816.72 points to 57,282.20 points in the initial trade. The NSE Nifty fell 254.4 points to 17,072.95 points.

Among the 30-share Sensex pack, Power Grid, Tata Steel, Maruti, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and Titan were the major laggards in the early trade.

Nestle and Hindustan Unilever were the only gainers.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai were trading lower while Hong Kong quoted marginally higher.

The US markets ended in the negative territory on Friday.

"The global macro construct is not favourable for equity markets in the short run. The dollar index above 113 and the US 10-year yield at 3.73 per cent is likely to aggravate FPI outflows which have been gathering momentum during the last three days.

"The probability of a global recession is also increasing since the US Fed continues to be ultra hawkish," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

On Friday, the BSE benchmark had tanked 1,020.80 points or 1.73 per cent to settle at 58,098.92 points. The Nifty had plummeted 302.45 points or 1.72 per cent to end at 17,327.35 points.

Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.59 per cent to USD 85.64 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 2,899.68 crore on Friday, according to data available with BSE.

"Although India is seen as a bright spot in times of global slowdown concerns, domestic markets will not be completely insulated from overseas turmoil and would continue to see bouts of intra-day volatility," Prashanth Tapse, Research Analyst, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Meanwhile, British pound has plunged to its lowest level against the US dollar since decimalisation in 1971, the media reported on Monday.

During early Asia trade on Monday morning, the pound fell by more than 4 per cent to $1.0327 before regaining some ground to around $1.05, said the BBC report.