Sensex falls 225 pts in early trade; Nifty dips below 17,500

Mumbai, Feb. 7 (PTI): Equity benchmark Sensex fell 225 points in opening trade on Monday, tracking losses in index majors HDFC twins, Infosys and Maruti amid persistent foreign fund outflows and a mixed trend on Asian bourses.

The BSE gauge was trading 225.04 points or 0.38 per cent lower at 58,419.78 in early trade. Likewise, the Nifty dropped 69.55 points or 0.40 per cent to 17,446.75.

Bajaj Finance was top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding nearly 2 per cent, followed by HDFC Bank, Infosys, M&M, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, Dr. Reddy’s, Maruti and HDFC.

On the other hand, Tata Steel, PowerGrid, SBI and Reliance Industries were among the gainers.

In the previous session, the 30-share index ended 143.20 points or 0.24 per cent lower at 58,644.82. Similarly, the NSE Nifty shed 43.90 points or 0.25 per cent to close at 17,516.30.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading with losses in mid-session deals, while Shanghai was in the green.

Stock exchanges in the US finished on a mixed note on Friday.

G-secs, forex and markets will remain closed on Monday, the RBI said after the Maharashtra government declared a public holiday to mourn the demise of legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Sunday announced rescheduling the meeting of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) by a day in view of Maharashtra declaring a public holiday on February 7 to mourn the death of Bharat Ratna legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar.

The MPC meeting was scheduled for February 7-9, 2022.

With the postponement, the meeting will now begin on February 8 and the outcome would be announced on February 10.

International oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.02 per cent to USD 93.25 per barrel.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pulled out as much as INR 6,834 crore from Indian markets in the first four trading sessions of February.

As per depositories data, FPIs took out INR 3,627 crore from equities, INR 3,173 crore from the debt segment and INR 34 crore from hybrid instruments.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth INR 2,267.86 crore on Friday, according to stock exchange data.