Opening Bell: Benchmarks drop more than 1% in opening trade; Nifty slips below 16,300, Sensex tanks nearly 800 points

The Indian markets opened negative on Friday as hinted by SGX Nifty and tracking Asian markets, which slipped to 16-month low on report of Ukraine nuclear plant fire. The SGX Nifty Futures on the Singaporean Exchange was trading lower by 247 points or 1.50% to 16,264.50 around 9.10 am on Friday.  

The Nifty50 slipped below 16,400 and the Sensex shed over 400 points as the benchmarks opened on 16,339.45 and 54,653.59 respectively. The barometer indices soon extended the losses as the Sensex tanked nearly 800 points.  

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In the pre-open, the Sensex declined more than 400 points as only two stocks advanced and remaining declined on the 30-share index. The broader Nifty50 too slipped below 16,400.  

Earlier, Asian equity markets and the euro suffered heavy losses on Friday while oil prices jumped as investors took fright from reports of a nuclear power plant on fire amid fierce fighting between Ukraine and Russian troops, said Reuters. 
 
The risk-off appetite battered markets across the region, sending U.S. stock futures also sharply lower, suggesting more pain for European and U.S. markets when they open later in the day. 

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan tumbled as much as 1.6% to 585.5, the lowest level since November 2020, taking the year-to-date losses to 7%. It regained some losses but was still down 1.1%.  

Stock markets across Asia were in a sea of red, with Japan losing 2.4%, South Korea 1.2%, China 0.9% and Hong Kong 2.5%. Commodities-heavy Australia was also not spared in the rout and shed 1%. S&P 500 futures pared early losses but were still down 0.6% and Nasdaq futures gave up 0.8%.