Opening bell: Sensex falls over 350 points at 64,971.75, Nifty below 19,350

Benchmark equity indices declined in early trade on Monday, falling for the third day running, amid weak global market trends and fresh foreign fund outflows.

Caution also prevailed in the market ahead of announcement of wholesale and retail inflation numbers for July later in the day.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 461.48 points to 64,861.17. The NSE Nifty declined 154.1 points to 19,274.20.

From the Sensex pack, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra, Power Grid, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies and HDFC Bank were the major laggards.

Sun Pharma and Nestle were the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the negative territory.

The US markets ended mostly lower on Friday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹3,073.28 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

“The market construct has turned a bit negative. The spike in the dollar index to 103 and the US 10-year bond yield rising to 4.18 are negative for capital flows to emerging markets. The FPI sell figure of ₹3,073 crore last Friday is in tune with these negative trends,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.85 per cent to USD 86.07 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark fell by 365.53 points or 0.56 per cent to settle at 65,322.65 on Friday. The Nifty declined by 114.80 points or 0.59 per cent to end at 19,428.30.