Markets slip in opening trade

New Delhi: The markets on Thursday opened in red in line with its Asian peers on account of selling interest seen across the sectors.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex was down by over 75 points in early choppy trade on profit-taking by general investors.

The 30-share BSE index (Sensex) was down 75.27 points at 12,711.50 in the first five minutes of the trading.

Similarly, on the wide-based National Stock Exchange, Nifty shed 24.10 points at 3,709.15.

Stockbrokers were cautious ahead of Good Friday closure and preferred to take away profits at higher level.

Heavyweight banking sector stocks such as State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were in the negative territory, dragging the Sensex down.

Other weak counters were Infosys Technologies, Wipro, ITC Ltd, Reliance Industries and Gujarat Ambuja Cement.

Declining world oil prices in the wake of the apparent resolution of the UK-Iran crisis pushed Asian stocks lower in early trading on Thursday.

Japan's Nikkei tumbled 0.43 per cent or 76.19 points at 17,467.90, South Korea's Seoul Composite was down 0.29 per cent or 4.23 points at 1,479.18 and Singapore's Straits Times was flat at 3,333.15.