The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex slipped by over 80 points in opening trade on Friday snapping its three-session winning streak on emergence of profit-booking at higher levels amid weak Asian markets.
However, gains in some heavy-weight stocks capped losses.
The BSE-30 share benchmark Sensex, which had gained over 495 points or 3.06 per cent in the past three sessions, fell by 80.22 points or 0.48 per cent at 16,630.89 in opening trade with retreating banking, realty and metal stocks.
Similarly, the Nifty on the wide-based National Stock Exchange plunged by 24.80 points to 4,965.55 after hitting the 5,000-point level for the first time since May last year.
Brokers said emergence of profit-booking by fund as well as retail investors after recording handsome gains in the past three sessions and weakening trends on the other Asian bourses attributed to the decline in stock prices.
The major losers were the State Bank of India — down by 1.12 per cent to Rs 2,083, ICICI Bank by 1.43 per cent to Rs 860.05, HDFC Bank by 0.28 per cent to Rs 1,532.10, Sterlite Industries by 1.94 per cent to Rs 457, Hindalco by 0.40 per cent to Rs 135.50, DLF Ltd by 0.66 per cent to Rs 417, Bharti Airtel by 0.15 per cent to Rs 432.50 and Larsen and Toubro by 0.33 per cent to Rs 1,639.
Bucking the trend, Reliance Industries after Thursday’s plunge, traded 0.71 per cent higher at Rs 2,101.10 and Infosys Technologies rose by 0.60 per cent to Rs 2,375.
