Sensex down 200 points in early trade; Nifty slips below 10,100-mark

Domestic markets on Friday opened in red amid weak global cues. At 0921 hours BSE Sensex was trading at 32,173.19, down 196.85 points or 0.51%, while NSE Nifty was trading at 10,056.45, down 65.45 points or 0.65%.

On 30-share benchmark, among top gainers were Dr Reddy's Lab (1.45%), Sun Pharma (1.15%), Cipla (1.11%), Lupin (0.92%) and Wipro (0.91%). Among top losers were ICICI Bank (-1.81%), Tata Steel (-1.22%), Reliance Industries (-1.16%), Hindustan Unilever (-1.02%) and State Bank of India (-1.01%). 

Prataap Snacks is set to hit the markets today with its initial public offer (IPO). The company which sells products under the brand name "Yellow Diamond", is planning to raise around Rs 480 crore with this IPO. For the same, the company has set a price band of Rs 930-938. 

Shares of Tata Motors will be in focus after the company has lined up three new passenger vehicles for the roll out. 

Also, shares of Bharti Airtel will be in focus as Unique Identification Authority of India has slapped notices on Airtel Payments Banks over its retailers allegedly opening payments bank accounts without taking "informed consent" of customers who go for Aadhaar-based mobile SIM verification, as reported by PTI.

Motilal Oswal in its daily market outlook report said, "On the domestic front, we could continue to see ranged markets with flows remaining mixed but the underlying bias appears to be positive. Reports of govt considering stimulus measures to prop up economy also raised concerns of slippages on fiscal deficit target. Rupee could see some more weakness in near term. 

"Also North Korea newsflow will keep global markets tentative. There is some shift to sectors which have been underperforming as the risk reward ratio in these spaces is better. Also rupee weakness would be supportive for export driven sectors," the report added.

On global markets front, as per Reuters report, Asian stocks slipped but showed signs of steadying as the dust began to settle after the Federal Reserve`s hawkish policy statement, while investors looked to see how Chinese financial markets would react to a downgrade on the nation`s credit rating.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan handed back earlier gains and was down 0.1% after falling 0.7% the previous day.