Nifty slips below 8,900-mark; Sensex down over 200 points

BSE Sensex on Friday plunged over 200 points, while NSE Nifty traded below 8,900-mark.

At 1202 hours, Sensex was trading at at 28,811.02, down 234.26 points, or 0.81%. While, Nifty was at 8875.20, down 77.30 points, or 0.86%.

On 30-share benchmark, among top gainers were GAIL (1.88%), Wipro (1.40%), ONGC (1.28%), TCS (0.94%) and Reliance Industries (0.75%). Among losers were HDFC (-2.63%), Hero MotoCorp (-2.51%), Axis Bank (-2.10%), ITC (-1.72%) and Tata Steel (-1.63%).

Today, Indian equity markets opened lower on the back of weal global cues. The BSE Sensex opened at 28,934, down 111 points, while NSE-Nifty at 8,915, down 36 points. 

The shares of Coal India will be in focus as the company will be announcing its financial result for the quarter ended on June 30 today. The shares of the company were trading at Rs 331 per piece, down 0.09%, or Rs 0.15 on BSE.

The rupee opened lower by 14 paise at 66.57 against US Dollar as against the previous close of 66.41.

On global front, Asian shares slipped and global bonds came under pressure after the European Central Bank left markets in the dark on what future easing steps it may take, while oil prices jumped on an unexpected drawdown in US stockpile, a Reuters report said.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.4% from Thursday's 13-month high, mirroring the slide in the MSCI's all-country world index .

Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.2%, erasing gains after reports North Korea may have conducted a nuclear test, the report said.

ECB President Mario Draghi, speaking after the central bank kept its policy on hold as expected, said the bank was looking at options to enable it to pursue the money-printing program, but maintained the March end-date for the plan.

With the ECB out of the way, the focus will shift back to the Fed's policy meeting later this month, the report added.