Markets open in red, Nifty below 10,700

New Delhi: Markets opened in red with Nifty coming below 10,700 on Friday due to weakness in the global markets along with persistent rise in crude oil prices.

The BSE Sensex was trading 171.33 points or 0.4 percent down at 34,977.79 in early trade amidst heavy sell off in banking, auto, FMCG and infra stocks. The NSE Nifty too fell 42.00 points or 0.39 percent to 10,640.70.

Sensex has touched a high of 35163.11 and low of 34961.78 in trade so far. Major losers were HDFC, Infosys, Maruti, Tata Motors, ITC, Adani Ports, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, L&T, Asian Paints and Wipro by falling upto 1.35 percent.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) net sold shares worth Rs 830.94 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities to the tune of Rs 428.92 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

Sensex fell 238.76 points to close at 35,149.12 while the NSE Nifty dropped 58.40 points to 10,682.70 on Thursday.

Trend at other Asian markets, however, was better as investors kept a cautious watch on developments in US-China trade negotiations.

Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.25 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.22 percent in early trade. China's Shanghai Composite index too rose 0.46 percent.

With PTI Inputs