Sensex falls over 500 points, Nifty loses 175 points in opening trade

New Delhi: The BSE Sensex cracked below the 34,000-mark by plunging about 500 points or 1.46 percent in opening trade on Friday due to across-the-board losses after investor sentiment was hit by a sell-off in world markets.

Also, the broader NSE Nifty cracked below 10,500-mark by falling over 175 points.

The Sensex has so far touched a high of 34,017.73 points and a low of 33,849.65 points during the intra-day trade. The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,331 declines and 194 advances.

The rupee today depreciated by 13 paise to trade at 64.39 against the US dollar on increased demand for the American currency from importers and banks.

Dealers said early losses in domestic equity markets and increased foreign fund outflows weighed on the rupee.

Market sentiment took a beating in line with sharp losses at other Asian markets after a record-breaking loss on Wall Street amid worries over rising bond yields.

US markets remained the epicentre of the global sell-off, with the Dow plunging 4.1 percent and the S&P 500 sinking 3.7 percent overnight.

With Thursday`s losses, both the S&P 500 and the Dow slid into correction territory, falling more than 10 percent from record highs of Jan. 26 and showing the dust was yet to settle from the slide that began a week ago.

Higher yields are seen hurting equities as they increase borrowing costs for companies and reduce their risk appetite. They also present a fresh alternative to investors who may reallocate some funds to bonds from equities.

With Agency Inputs