Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex was trading 227 points lower at 11:36 a.m., pulled down by political news trickling in from New Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has lost the support of a southern ally.
Meanwhile, the broader NSE Nifty 50 index was trading 69.95 points lower to 10,290.20.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) enjoys full majority in the Lok Sabha, despite the Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) exit from the grand alliance on Friday. However, in a big election year, market players will take some cues from any fluctuation in parliamentary math.
After Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya, the Congress-ruled Karnataka will go to the polls in the first-half of the calendar year, followed by the BJP-ruled states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rajasthan, and Mizoram.
Representational image. Reuters
Following the loss of two Lok Sabha seats in the recent Uttar Pradesh (UP) bypolls, the BJP's tally in the lower house of Parliament has dropped to 275. The party won an absolute majority in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with 282 seats.
The Sensex shed over 130 points in early trade on Friday amid weak Asian cues and selling in oil and gas, metals, power, PSU and IT counters. Brokers said persistent selling by investors, capital outflows by foreign funds and a weak trend in Asian bourses owing to growing concerns about the prospect of a global trade war dampened market sentiment, the PTI reported.
The Sensex was trading 136.94 points lower, or 0.40 percent, earlier in the day at 33,548.60. The gauge has lost 232.40 points in the previous three trading sessions. The 50-share Nifty also fell 50.95 points, or 0.49 per cent, earlier today, to 10,309.20.
Kotak Bank, ONGC, NTPC, Asian Paint, Reliance Industries, HDFC, TCS, Infosys, ICICI Bank, ITC, SBI, IndusInd Bank and Tata Motors were among the major losers in morning trade, falling up to 1.40 percent. Shares of Gitanjali Gems continued to be under selling pressure, falling 4.63 percent to Rs 12.35.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.24 percent and Shanghai Composite shed 0.11 percent in early trade today. Japan's Nikkei too down 0.24 percent. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, ended 0.47 percent higher on Thursday.
With inputs from PTI.
Published Date: Mar 16, 2018 11:06 AM | Updated Date: Mar 16, 2018 12:05 PM
