Sensex, Nifty fall in early trade on selling in banking shares, Reliance Industries

Mumbai, January 27

Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty fell in early trade on Friday dragged down by banking shares and Reliance Industries along with continuous foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE benchmark tanked 578.19 points to 59,626.87 in initial trade. The broader NSE Nifty fell 144.7 points to 17,747.25.

From the Sensex pack, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Bank were among the major laggards.

Tata Motors, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Steel were among the winners.

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

Markets in the US had ended higher on Thursday.

Stock markets were closed on Thursday on account of Republic Day.

International oil benchmark Brent crude edged up 0.38 per cent to USD 87.80 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded shares worth Rs 2,393.94 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.