Decline in equity continues for 5th straight sessions; Sensex, Nifty slip 1%

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) and broader 50-scrip Nifty on National Stock Exchange (NSE) extended losses from January 21 and declined sharply during early trade on Monday primarily due to sell-off by foreign institutional investors.

This is the fifth consecutive decline in sessions for the indices.

At 10.20 a.m., Sensex traded at 58,58,402 points, down 1.1 per cent or 635 points from the previous close of 59,037 points.

It opened at 59,023 points.

Nifty traded at 17,423 points, down 1.1 per cent or 193 points from the previous close of 17,617 points. It opened at 17,575 points.

Divi's Labs, Bajaj Finance, Wipro, JSW Steel, and Tech Mahindra were some of the top losers, NSE data showed.

Top gainers during the early trade were Cipla, ONGC, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, and Bharti Airtel.

"The heightened tensions in the Russia-Ukraine border is a major geopolitical concern. FIIs again turning big sellers is a major headwind. Investors have to move cautiously," said V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"An important feature of the tech sell-off is that bulk of the selling is happening in non-profitable tech stocks. This trend is impacting stocks like Zomato and Paytm in India too."