Sensex down 200 points, Nifty falls to 11,314

Mumbai, Aug 2: Equity benchmark BSE Sensex on Thursday opened lowered by 100 points while Nifty slipped below 11,350. Nifty PSU banks down 1% led by SBI, Syndicate Bank, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Bank of Baroda.

At 9.24 am, the 30-share strong BSE Sensex was trading over 114.47 points or 0.31% lower at 37,407.15, while the broader NSE Nifty was 37.00 points or 0.33% down at 11,309.20.

The market sentiments seemed to have gone negative after RBI repo rate hike by 25 basis points and declines in the regional Asian shares following downbeat Wall Street and renewed trade war spat between US and China.

Asian stocks dropped as the latest escalation in the Sino-US trade war hit Chinese shares, while global bond markets were rattled by increased borrowing by Washington and Japan's new tolerance for higher yields. Click here to read more

The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday but characterised the economy as strong, keeping the central bank on track to increase borrowing costs in September.

On Wednesday, markets had closed at record-high levels, gaining over a 100 points. The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday announced its decision to hike its key lending rate, or repo rate, by 25 basis points citing increasing inflationary pressures.