Sensex slumps over 440 pts, Nifty slips below 15,000 in early trade

Sensex slumps over 440 pts, Nifty slips below 15,000 in early trade
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Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex tumbled over 440 points and the NSE Nifty cracked below the key 15,000-level in early trade on Friday in line with a slump in other Asian markets as US bond market turmoil continued to fan investor worries globally.

The BSE gauge Sensex was trading at 50,405.99, showing a drop of 440.09 points or 0.87 percent in the opening session.

Similarly, the NSE barometer Nifty was quoted lower by 124.75 points or 0.83 percent at 14,956.

On the Sensex chart, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, PowerGrid, and HDFC Bank emerged as major laggards -- dropping as much as 3 percent.

Of the Sensex shares, 21 traded in the red.

Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets continued their decline on Friday following a retreat on Wall Street amid concerns over rising yields in bond markets.

"The 'bond bears vs equity bulls' game continues in the US market with similar reverberations in other developed and emerging markets. The highly valued Nasdaq appears to be in a short-phase of reversion to mean, having declined 10 percent from record highs.

"The US 10-year yield has again spiked to 1.575 percent giving further ammunition to bond bears," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Back home, both Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) turned sellers on Thursday, impacting market sentiments, he added.

On Thursday, the Sensex had shed 598.57 points or 1.16 percent, and the Nifty had lost 164.85 points or 1.08 percent.

Foreign investors had offloaded equities worth Rs 223.11 crore on a net basis in Indian capital markets on Thursday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, global crude oil benchmark Brent was trading 0.77 percent higher at USD 64.32 per barrel.