Markets open flat in line with Asian peers

New Delhi: Markets opened in flat note on Friday tracking weakness in the benchmark global markets.

The BSE Sensex, which had opened at 35,428.42 points, was trading 42.31 points or 0.12 percent down  at 35,390.08. Similarly, the wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was trading 17.50 points or 0.16 percent down at 10,723.60.

Major losers included Indusind Bank, Wipro, Vedanta Limited, Tata Motors, Yes Bank, Asian Paint, SBIN, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports, Coal India and Reliance Industries, declining up to 1.46 percent.

Asian shares slid to their lowest in six months on Friday, on signs US trade battles with China. Meanwhile, India will raise customs duty on 29 products, including almond, walnut and pulses, imported from the US as a retaliatory action against the tariff hike by Washington. The duty hike would come into effect from August 4, the Finance Ministry said in a notification.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped as much as 0.35 percent at one point to touch its lowest since early December.

Hong Kong`s Hang Seng hit six-month lows, having lost 3.9 percent so far this week. South Korea`s KOSPI hit nine-month lows and in mainland China, the CSI300 index lost almost 5 percent this week to hit one-year lows.

Japan`s Nikkei lost 0.85 percent.

With Agency Inputs