Markets fall in early trade on unabated foreign fund outflows

New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices declined in early trade on Tuesday amid unabated foreign fund outflows and sluggish Asian market cues.

Fall in index majors Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank also dragged the benchmark indices lower.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 347.09 points to 65,481.32. The Nifty declined 117.3 points to 19,521.

Among the Sensex firms, Maruti, State Bank of India, JSW Steel, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, ITC, Reliance Industries and NTPC were the major laggards.

Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, UltraTech Cement and Mahindra & Mahindra were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Tokyo and Hong Kong were quoting lower while Shanghai traded in the green.

The US markets ended mostly in the green on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.89 per cent to USD 89.90 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,685.70 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors) turned net sellers and pulled out over Rs 14,767 crore from the Indian equities in September, primarily due to dollar appreciation, steady rise in the US bond yields, and a spike in crude oil prices.

Equity markets were closed on Monday on account of Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti.

"There are mixed cues for the October series, which historically has been a good month for markets. The major negative for the near-term will continue to be the sustained FII selling. The dollar index rising above 107 and the US 10-year bond yield at 16-year high of 4.68 per cent are major headwinds for the market since FIIs are likely to continue selling in response to the rising dollar and US bond yields.

"But, on the positive side, the bulls will be emboldened to buy on the back of the tailwind of the 5 per cent crash in Brent crude prices," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The BSE benchmark had climbed 320.09 points or 0.49 per cent to settle at 65,828.41 on Friday. The Nifty advanced 114.75 points or 0.59 per cent to end at 19,638.30.

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