Sensex Dips 450 Points In Early Trade, Banking Stocks Lead Declines

Benchmark indices continued to decline for a second day in a row with the Sensex falling more than 450 points and the Nifty down 108 points in early trade. Asian cues were weak, following a surge in bond yields in the US. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 2.30% while the Topix index dropped 2.5%. South Korea's Kopsi declined 1.82%.

Banking stocks were leading declines today in the Indian markets with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank among the top losers in trade.

Pharma stocks were more resilient and managed to trade higher with Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's and Divia Labs among the top gainers in early trade.

"Markets are likely to consolidate at higher levels given the sharp run-up in the past few weeks. Markets are increasingly witnessing rotation from outperforming sectors to under-valued stocks. This week lot of macro data points would be released viz. PMI data across US, Europe and China along with US and UK's GDP data and Japan's MPC, which would keep the markets busy. Today API monthly report by OPEC would be released which would give fresh outlook on the world oil market amidst soaring crude prices. Also we might experience some volatility ahead of monthly F&O expiry on 30th September," says Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.