A selloff across sectors - led by financial stocks - pulled the markets lower
However, the markets trimmed some of those losses within the first hour of trade. At 9:59 am, the Sensex traded 478.18 points - or 1.23 per cent - lower at 38,512.76, while the Nifty was down 128.60 points - or 1.12 per cent - at 11,398.85. (Track Sensex, Nifty LIVE)
Adani Ports, Wipro, Hindalco, HCL Tech, Zee Entertainment and JSW Steel, trading between 1.72 per cent and 2.55 per cent lower, were the worst hit among the 45 laggards in the 50-scrip Nifty basket. On the other hand, Bharti Infratel and Maruti Suzuki - up 4.26 per cent and 1.69 per cent respectively - were the top gainers.
HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries and Infosys were the biggest drags on Sensex, together accounting for a fall of nearly 200 points in the 30-scrip index.
Overall market breadth was sharply lower, with an advance-decline ratio of 1:3, as 444 stocks on the BSE traded higher against 1,388 that succumbed to losses.
"When US and global markets shiver, domestic markets also bound to get affected. The index (Nifty) has still not recovered even half from the lowest level recorded in Monday's selloff," AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Bank, told NDTV. "Markets will give a fantastic time, but not now... We need to wait a bit," he said.
Data earlier this week showed the country's economy shrank 23.9 per cent in the quarter ended June 30, its worst contraction on record.
Equities in other Asian markets plunged on Friday, marking their worst session in two weeks, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan last seen trading 1.45 per cent lower. The index was set for a weekly loss of around 2 per cent, its worst since April.
While Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark traded 1.13 per cent lower, China's Shanghai Composite, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's KOSPI indices were down 1.38 per cent, 1.82 per cent and 1.56 per cent respectively.
The E-Mini S&P 500 futures were down 0.58 per cent, indicating a negative start for US markets on Friday.
Overnight in the US, the markets tumbled dragged by technology space shares, though gains in safer assets like bonds and dollars were muted ahead of a jobs report of the world's largest economy. The technology stocks-heavy Nasdaq Composite index plunged 5 per cent, and the S&P 500 benchmark dropped 3.5 per cent, marking Wall Street's steepest fall since June.
