Domestic stock markets opened lower on Friday following a selloff in Asian counterparts as rising pandemic cases globally dampened investor sentiment. At 10.50 am, the BSE Sensex traded lower by 12 points at 43,233-mark, while the NSE Nifty50 index touched at 12,680 down 6 percent.
Heavy selling in banking stocks pulled the banking gauge, Nifty Bank more than 400 points lower. Broader markets seen mixed as Nifty Smallcap100 outperformed the benchmarks with 0.2 percent gains. Among sectoral indices, the Nifty Private Bank, Financial Services and Metal declined the most while Nifty Pharma, Nifty IT and Nifty Realty traded in the green.
Eicher Motors, Bajaj Finserve, Reliance, Bajaj Finance and Hero Motor Corp were among top gainers in the Nifty, while Tata Motors, Larsen and Toubro, State bank of India, IndusInd Bank and Hindalco were top losers. Shares in Indiabulls Real Estate rallied over 8 percent after Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's Rare Enterprises acquired 50 lakh shares of the company at an average price of Rs 57.73 through an open market transaction on Thursday.
Stocks in Asia declined on Friday, following on from selloffs in the US and Europe as investors feared the economic impact of an accelerating rise in Covid-19 infections.
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