New Delhi: The key Indian equity market indices on Thursday opened lower with the Nifty slipping  below the 11,400-mark in early trade today amidst widening trade deficit that rose to more-than-five-year high of $18.02 billion in July.


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Markets were shut on Wednesday for the Independence Day celebrations.


The 30-share index dropped 207.03 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 37,644.97. The gauge had gained 207.10 points in the previous session on Tuesday. The NSE Nifty fell below the 11,400-mark, shedding 58.15 points, or 0.50 per cent, to 11,376.95.


Major losers were Vedanta, Kotak Bank, Yes Bank, Tata Steel, RIL, Wipro, Adani Ports, HDFC, Tata Motors, HUL, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank, ITC, IndusInd Bank and SBI, falling up to 4 percent.


The rupee slumped 43 paise against the dollar to trade at a life-time low of 70.32 on strong demand for the US currency.


Asian stocks opened sharply lower today, joining a global sell-off on concerns over Turkey's financial crisis but later pared losses on news that China and the US would hold trade talks. Equities across the region suffered steep losses at the opening bell, with Tokyo and Shanghai off by more than one percent, dragged down by a weak session on Wall Street as traders fretted over possible contagion from Turkey's currency crisis, a Reuters report said.


Japan's main Nikkei 225 index shed 1.20 percent in early trade and China's benchmark Shanghai Composite was off by 1.17 percent after another day of volatile trading driven by Turkey.


With Agency Inputs