Sensex suffers more losses, down 148 points in early trade on global cues; oil and gas, realty, power stocks dip

Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex declined by over 148 points in early trade today, tracking a weak trend in global markets as the trade spat between the US and China intensified. Unabated capital outflows by foreign funds and profit-booking by retail investors too dampened sentiment.

The 30-share index, which had lost 73.88 points in the previous session, drifted down by 148.34 points, or 0.42 percent, to 35,399.92.

The NSE Nifty too was quoting lower by 52.55 points, or 0.49 percent, at 10,747.30. All sectoral indices, led by oil and gas, power, realty and power were in the negative zone, falling up to 1.31 per cent. The laggards included Vedanta, HUL, Infosys, Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki, RIL, ICICI Bank, PowerGrid and IndusInd Bank, falling by up to 1.64 percent. Stocks of oil marketing companies such as HPCL, BPCL and IOC, which had a good day yesterday, came under selling pressure in line with the overall trend and fell up to 3 percent. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 754.43 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 824.10 crore yesterday, provisional data showed. [caption id=“attachment_4474529” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Brokers watching stock movements. Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Global markets were rattled after US President Donald Trump unveiled plans to impose 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods on top of the previous punitive measures over Beijing’s “unacceptable” move to raise its own tariffs. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled 2.20 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.82 per cent in early trade today. Shanghai Composite too declined 2.58 percent. The US Dow Jones ended 0.41 percent lower in yesterday’s trade. Rupee trades lower Rupee falls 12 paise The rupee tumbled by 12 paise to a fresh three-week low of 68.11 against the US dollar in late morning trade today on sustained demand for the American currency from importers and banks amid lower local equities. The rupee opened a tad higher against yesterday’s closing level of 67.99 at the inter-bank foreign exchange market here. Later, the domestic unit hovered between 67.98 and 68.12 per dollar during morning deals. It was quoting at 68.11 at 1030 hrs. Persistent foreign capital outflows are looming over the rupee, a dealer said. Meanwhile, the US dollar was mostly mixed against other currencies in early Asian trade. It fell against the yen and Swiss franc after US President Donald Trump’s threat of additional tariffs on China raised worries about an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies.