The Sensex and Nifty opened lower in trade today amid as Asian markets went into a deeper bear market tracking a slump in their US peers after Federal Reserve raised interest rates again. The rate increase, to a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent, was the Fed's fourth this year.

While the Sensex fell 70 points to 36,361, Nifty lost 30 points to 10,923.

Top Sensex gainers were  Bharti Airtel (2.04%), M&M (1.87%) and Tata Motors (1.42%).

Infosys (1.78%),  Asian Paints (0.88%) and TCS (0.62%) were the top Sensex losers.

Top sectoral losers were IT stocks with the BSE IT index falling 0.92% and consumer durables (0.43 %). Bank Nifty gained 67 points to 27,342.

Meanwhile, the mid cap and small cap indices were trading 0.23% and 0.40% higher in early trade.

Market breadth was positive with 958 stocks trading higher compared to 534 falling on the BSE.

On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 386.44 crore on Thursday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 87.96 crore, provisional data available with BSE showed.

Global markets

Asian stocks fell further Friday after Wall Street slid on recession fears, putting markets in Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney on track to end 2018 down more than 10 percent.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index fell 1.9 percent to 20,015.67 points. The Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.9 percent to 2,512.54 points. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 retreated 1.2 percent to 5,440.70 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gave up 0.8 percent to 25,426.24.

The Shanghai index is on track to end the year down more than 25 percent, while Tokyo is off almost 13 percent.

Edited by Aseem Thapliyal