New Delhi, Mar 4 (IANS): India's key indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- extended their losses and fell sharply in the opening session on Friday amid skyrocketing crude oil prices.
At 10.09 a.m., Sensex was 1.5 per cent or 818 points down at 54,284 points, whereas Nifty 1.5 per cent or 251 points down at 16,247 points.
Among stocks, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki, Eicher Motors, Hindustan Unilever were the top five losers among the Nifty 50 companies, down 5.3 per cent, 4.3 per cent, 4.2 per cent, 3.5 per cent, and 3.0 per cent, respectively.
"Even in a declining market there will be safe spots like IT, metals and high quality stocks which will not be impacted by rising inflation and higher interest rates," said V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
UPL, Dr Reddy's, ITC, Ultratech Cement, and Tata Steel, on the other hand, were the top five gainers in the early trade.