The Sensex fell as much as 303 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 17,202.
MarketEdited by Abhishek Vasudev (with inputs from Reuters)Updated: December 17, 2021 9:25 am IST
The Indian equity benchmarks edged lower on Friday on the back of weak cues from other Asian markets. The Sensex fell as much as 303 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 17,202. Asian stock markets and the U.S. dollar struggled for traction on Friday after a rush of central bank meetings underlined the growing threat posed by a spike in global inflation, while fears about the omicron variant of COVID-19 added to a cautious mood.
As of 9:21 am, the Sensex was down 124 points at 57,777 and Nifty 50 index declined 39 points to 17,209.
Japan’s Nikkei was 0.85 per cent lower in early trading on Friday after rising 2.13 per cent the day before in its best day in nearly seven weeks.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.2 per cent. It is heading for a weekly decline of 1.7 per cent, and at 621.93 is only just above the year low of 615.99 set last week.