Sensex opens lower 154 points on weak global cues

Mumbai, Jan 20 (PTI) The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmarkSensex fell by 154 points in early trade today on sustainedselling by funds and retail investors in tandem with weakAsian markets.

The 30-share barometer, which lost 113.73 points in theprevious session, fell further by 154.10 points to 18,824.22points.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Niftydeclined by 46.65 points to 5,644.40 points.

Brokers said continued offloading of positions by fundsand retail investors in line with weakening Asian trendfollowing overnight losses on the US market on disappointingearnings mainly pulled down the Sensex.

In other Asian markets, Japan''s Nikkei fell by 1.13 percent while Hong Kong''s Hang Seng index was down by 0.82 percent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.11 per centlower yesterday.