Sensex falls 260 points, Nifty slips below 11,000

New Delhi: Markets opened in red on Friday led by decline in IT and banking stocks.

The BSE Sensex fell 260.79 points or 0.70 percent to 37,050.74 in early trade while the NSE Nifty dropped 75.35 points or 0.68 percent to 10,954.05.

Markets were closed on Thursday on account of Independence Day. In the previous session on Wednesday, the BSE Sensex rose 353.37 points or 0.96 percent to 37,311.53 while the NSE Nifty closed higher by 103.55 points or 0.95 percent to 11,029.40.

Major losers in the Sensex pack were Vedanta, HCL Tech, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Tata Steel, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, Powergrid, Inofosys, Sun Pharma and RIL, falling upto 2.63 percent. On the other hand shares of Yes BAnk, ITC, ONGC, Bajaj Fianance and HUL were gainers, rising upto 1.70 percent.

The US-China trade dispute remained a drag after Beijing on Thursday vowed to counter the latest tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods, a Reuters report said. Among Asian peers MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.2%, Japan`s Nikkei recouped early losses to be 0.09% firmer, while Shanghai blue chips rose 0.7%.