NEW DELHI:- The Sensex and Nifty fell in early trade on Thursday due to a sharp rise in crude oil prices amid rising tensions in West Asia. In early trade, the BSE Sensex fell 230.95 points to 76,521.02, while the NSE Nifty fell 57.15 points to 23,937.
Of the 30 companies in the Sensex, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, NTPC, and Reliance Industries suffered the most losses. Meanwhile, Trent and Eternal were among the gainers. In Asian markets, South Korea's KOSPI jumped 3.15 percent.
Japan's Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng are also trading higher, while China's SSE Composite Index is down. US stock markets closed lower on Wednesday. International benchmark Brent crude oil prices rose 2.27 percent to $96.20 a barrel.
According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers on Wednesday, selling shares worth ?819.20 crore. The BSE Sensex closed down 0.92 percent and the NSE Nifty 0.79 percent on Wednesday.
Rupee rises 5 paise to 96.48 against the US dollar in early trade
The rupee strengthened 5 paise to 96.48 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday amid possible intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). However, rising global crude oil prices due to rising tensions in West Asia are putting pressure on the domestic currency.
Foreign exchange dealers said that foreign capital outflows and continued weak sentiment in domestic equity markets also kept the rupee under pressure. However, a weaker US dollar provided some relief to the local currency.