Markets fall in early trade on weak trend in US equities, foreign fund outflows

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices declined in early trade on Wednesday tracking weak trends in the US market and foreign fund outflows.

Also, a weak trend in index major Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank dragged down the benchmark indices lower in initial trade.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 54.08 points to 60,076.63 points while the broader NSE Nifty fell 24 points to 17,745.25 points.

Among the Sensex firms, Tata Steel, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ITC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and HDFC were the biggest laggards.

Power Grid, IndusInd Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors and Nestle were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Hong Kong were quoting in the green while Japan and Shanghai were trading lower.

The US markets had ended sharply lower on Tuesday.

"Markets could decline sharply in early Wednesday trade after the key US gauges faltered overnight as renewed banking woes came to the fore amid a 41 per cent plunge in the shares of First Republic.

"Volatility will continue to be the hallmark for next two trading days given the expiry of April futures & options contracts on Thursday," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said in his pre-market open note.

The 30-share BSE benchmark rose 74.61 points or 0.12 per cent to settle at 60,130.71 points on Tuesday. The Nifty gained 25.85 points or 0.15 per cent to end at 17,769.25 points.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.42 per cent to USD 81.11 per barrel.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 407.35 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.