Sensex drops over 200 pts in opening trade; Nifty below 11,200

Mumbai, Aug. 7 (PTI): Benchmark Sensex dropped over 200 points in early trade on Friday, dragged by losses in HDFC Bank, Infosys and ICICI Bank amid weak cues from global markets.

After falling to 37,787.38 points in opening session, the BSE Sensex was trading 151.50 points or 0.40 per cent lower at 37,873.95; while the NSE Nifty was down 32.95 points or 0.29 per cent at 11,167.20.

HCL Tech was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, shedding over 1 per cent, followed by HDFC twins, Infosys, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank and Kotak Bank.

On the other hand, Asian Paints, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank and TCS were among the gainers.

In the previous session, the Sensex had ended 362.12 points or 0.96 per cent higher at 38,025.45, while the broader Nifty had jumped 98.50 points or 0.89 per cent to finish at 11,200.15.

Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 637.43 crore on a net basis on Thursday.

According to traders, market sentiment turned negative tracking weak cues from other Asian indices amid reports that the Trump administration is considering a proposal to crackdown on Chinese companies that are listed in the US.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo were trading in the red.

Wall Street, meanwhile, ended on a positive note in overnight session.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.33 per cent lower at USD 44.94 per barrel.