Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex fell by over 228 points and the NSE Nifty dipped below the crucial 7,800- mark in early trade as investors offloaded their positions on disappointing macro data and weak trend in Asian markets.
The 30-share barometer, which gained 123.69 points on the first day of Samvat 2072 in special ‘Muhurat’ session on Wednesday, was trading lower by 228.41 points or 0.88% at 25,638.54, with all the sectoral indices led by infra, power, banking and realty in the red.
On similar lines, the NSE Nifty slipped below the 7,800- mark by falling 80.75 points or 1.03% to 7,744.25.
Brokers said market mood took a hit after a government data showed that industrial production fell to a four-month low of 3.6% in September due to subdued performance by manufacturing and non-durable consumer goods segments.
Adding to the gloom was inflation, which rose for a third straight month and touched 5% in October.
A weak trend in other Asian markets in line with heavy losses in Europe and the US after commodity prices plunged to multi-year lows on worries that softer global growth may exacerbate the supply glut also weighed on the sentiment here.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 2.09%, Shanghai’s Composite index fell 1.01%, while Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.89 per cent in their early trade.
Meanwhile, the US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.44% lower in Thursday’s trade.