Sensex falls over 500 points in early trade amid weak global markets

Mumbai: Benchmark indices began the trade on a weak note on Friday with the Sensex falling over 500 points in early trade amid feeble global market trends.

Foreign fund outflows and fears of recession in the global economy have dented investor sentiments.

The 30-share BSE benchmark tanked 538.2 points to 59,395.81 in early trade. The Nifty declined 161.3 points to 17,716.10.

From the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Wipro, HDFC, Infosys, Axis Bank, HCL Technologies and Power Grid were among the major laggards.

IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma and Asian Paints were among the early gainers.

Asian markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading lower.

The US markets had ended lower on Thursday.

"The market has started showing some indications of fatigue. Globally, the major concern now is that the Fed might oversteer the economy and end up raising rates too much too fast, pushing the US economy into a sharp recession," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Sharply rising rates, bond yields and dollar are negatives for equity, he added.

"In this challenging environment it would be difficult for India to sustain the decoupling from the global trend which has been a recent pattern in India. Moreover, FIIs have halted their sustained buying and have turned sellers, though this is not yet a trend," Vijayakumar said.

The BSE benchmark ended 412.96 points or 0.68 per cent lower at 59,934.01 on Thursday. The Nifty dipped 126.35 points or 0.7 per cent to settle at 17,877.40.

Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.18 per cent to USD 91 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 1,270.68 crore from the domestic market on Thursday, according to data available with the BSE.