Sensex falls over 100 points, Nifty at 10,700

New Delhi: Markets opened higher on Friday but slipped immediately after.

The BSE Sensex fell 102.12 points or 0.28 percent to 35,774.10 in early trade while the NSE Nifty fell 36.40 points or 0.34 percent to 10,709.65.

Major laggards were Sun Pharma, Vedanta, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors, M&M, HDFC, Tata Steel, SBI, Asian paint, RIL, HUL, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, Yes Bank, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank, falling up to 1.95 percent.

On the other hand, ONGC was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 6 percent, after the state-owned company Thursday reported a 65 percent jump in its Q3. Other gainers include NTPC, PowerGrid, Coal India, L&T and ICICI Bank, rising up to 5.60 percent.

Meanwhile, on a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 250.23 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,225.24 crore on Thursday, provisional data showed.

The rupee weakened by 17 paise to trade at 71.33 against the US dollar in opening session Friday following sustained demand for the greenback from importers amid foreign fund outflow and rising global crude prices.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, which had scaled a four-month high midweek on factors including expectations for reduced U.S.-China trade tensions, was down 0.8 percent, a Reuters report said.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6 percent. Japan`s Nikkei dropped 1.2 percent and South Korea`s KOSPI shed 1.5 percent. In the United States, the S&P 500 lost about 0.3 percent on Thursday, a day after it hit a 10-week high on rising hopes that Washington and Beijing could reach a trade deal.

With Agency Inputs