The key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Monday declined in opening deal due to unabated selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and rising crude oil prices.
Besides, IT stocks led losses on the Sensex with Wipro, Tech M, Infosys, TCS, and HCL Tech dropping 1-2 per cent. Bajaj twins, HUL and Asian Paints were the other notable laggards.
The 30-share BSE Sensex at 10.15am was down 203 points to 55,566, while the borader NSE Nifty was trading at 16,519, down 64 points.
On the BSE, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Tata Steel, and Titan were the biggest laggards.
On the flipside, M&M and Axis Bank were the gainers.
In the broader markets, which also opened in the red, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell up to 0.2 per cent.
Sectorwise, Nifty IT, Media, Metals, PSBs and Realty indices suffered the maxmium losses, each down over 1 per cent. Other pockets were also in red.
In Asian markets, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were trading in the green.
Stock markets in the US had ended lower on Friday.
“The market mood has turned a bit cautious with better-than-expected US jobs data (3.90 lakh jobs) in May. This good economic news is negative from the market perspective since it means the Fed is likely to tighten aggressively without bothering about a possible recession. For India, elevated crude prices and a $23 billion trade deficit in May are areas of concern. Even though FPI selling has come down in early June, they are likely to sell more at higher levels,” V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, told the PTI.
In the previous session on Friday, the Sensex ended 48 points (0.09 per cent) lower at 55,769 points on Friday. The NSE Nifty dipped 43 points (0.26 per cent) to finish at 16,584 points.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.79 per cent to $120.63 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 3,770.51 crore on Friday, according to stock exchange data.