Sensex slides 227 points in early trade; Nifty falls to 16,517 level

New Delhi: Benchmark indices continued to fall on Monday, with the Sensex declining 227 points in early trade as investors remained cautious amid unabated selling by foreign funds and elevated crude oil prices.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 226.7 points lower at 55,542.53 points. The broader NSE Nifty fell by 67.05 points to 16,517.25 points.

From the Sensex pack, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Tata Steel and Titan were the biggest laggards.

In contrast, M&M and Axis Bank were the gainers.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the green.

Stock markets in the US had ended lower on Friday.

"The market mood has turned a bit cautious with better-than-expected US jobs data (3.90 lakh jobs) in May. This good economic news is negative from the market perspective since it means the Fed is likely to tighten aggressively without bothering about a possible recession.

"For India, elevated crude prices and a USD 23 billion trade deficit in May are areas of concern. Even though FPI selling has come down in early June, they are likely to sell more at higher levels," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

The BSE Sensex ended 48.88 points or 0.09 per cent lower at 55,769.23 points on Friday. The NSE Nifty dipped 43.70 points or 0.26 per cent to finish at 16,584.30 points.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.79 per cent to USD 120.63 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 3,770.51 crore on Friday, according to stock exchange data.

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