Markets extend losses, Sensex drops 150 points

New Delhi: Markets extended losses in early trade on Thursday, tracking losses in index majors amid weak cues from global markets.

The BSE Sensex fell 149.47 points or 0.37 percent to 40,557.84 in early trade while the NSE Nifty dropped 44.70 points or 0.37 percent to 11,892.95.

Major losers in the Sensex pack were ICICI Bank, Asian Paint, Powergrid, Nestle, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, Maruti, RIL, Titan, Tata Steel and SBI, falling upto 1.45 percent.

On the other hand, major gainers in the Sensex pack were Bajaj Finserve, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, LT, Axis Bank, HCL Tech, Bharti Airtel, TCS, ONGC, M&M, rising uplto 2.18 percent.

In the previous session, Sensex settled 162.94 points or 0.40 per cent higher at 40,707.31, and the broader NSE Nifty rose 40.85 points or 0.34 per cent to finish at 11,937.65.

Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 2,108.48 crore on a net basis on Wednesday.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.63%. Australian shares gave up 0.6%, Seoul`s Kospi was off 0.59% and and Chinese blue-chips dropped 1.1%. The Nikkei was 0.69% lower.