Sensex suffers more losses, falls 214 points over fresh trade war worries

Benchmark Sensex declined by over 214 points in opening trade today, extending yesterday's fall, tracking a weak trend in global markets amid fresh concerns of a possible China-US trade war.

Unabated capital outflows by foreign funds and profit-booking by retail investors too dampened sentiments.

There was caution among investors ahead of the May month derivatives expiry tomorrow.

The 30-share index, which had lost 216.24 points in the previous session, drifted down by 214.13 points, or 0.61 per cent, to 34,735.11.

The NSE Nifty cracked below the 10,600-mark by falling 69.45 points, or 0.65 per cent, to 10,563.85.

All sectoral indices led by bank, oil & gas and capital goods were in the negative zone, slipping up to 1.02 per cent.

Brokers said sustained foreign funds outflows, weak trend at other Asian markets and overnight losses at the Wall Street, rattled by renewed concerns of a possible China-US trade war and political uncertainty in Italy, mainly triggered selling here.

Major losers included Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports, Yes Bank, Dr Reddy's and HDFC Ltd, falling by up to 1.92 per cent.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 407.33 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 578.38 crore yesterday, provisional data showed.

Globally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.62 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei shed 1.79 per cent in early trade today. Shanghai Composite too was down by 2.04 per cent.

The US Dow Jones ended 1.58 per cent lower in yesterday's trade.

Meanwhile, the rupee today opened on a subdued note with a loss of five paise at 67.91 against the US dollar at the interbank forex market.
Strength in the dollar against other currencies overseas weighed on the domestic unit.

Traders attributed the rupee's fall to sustained foreign fund outflows, increased demand for the US currency from importers and banks amid a lower opening in the domestic equity market.