HUL opened over 1% lower after the company reported a marginal decline in consolidated net profit.

• HCL Technologies, ITC, Power Grid are the other major laggards.
• Nestle, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank are the top gainers in trade on Friday morning.

Equity benchmark indices, the Nifty and the Sensex

Indices fell in early trade on Friday due to weak trends in global markets and soaring crude oil prices. Foreign fund outflows also weighed on investor sentiments.

Falling for the third day running, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 320.63 points to 65,308.61. The Nifty declined 106 points to 19,518.70.

Among the Sensex firms, Hindustan Unilever traded over 1% lower after the company reported a marginal decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,657 crore for the second quarter ended September 30 amid subdued rural demand and heightened competitive intensity.

HCL Technologies, ITC, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement and Asian Paints were among the other major laggards.

Nestle, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank were among the gainers.

Speaking about the slip seen in the equity markets, Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said that The US 10-year yield hovering around 5% continues to be a headwind. ‘The volatile situation in West Asia, though being largely ignored by the market now, can pose additional near-term challenges. FPIs are likely to remain sellers putting pressure on banking stocks which constitute the major share of their AUM. This provides an opportunity for domestic investors to buy these stocks which are available at fair valuations.’

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

The US markets ended lower on Thursday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.90% to USD 93.21 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth INR 1,093.47 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark fell 247.78 points or 0.38% to settle at 65,629.24 on Thursday.

The Nifty declined 46.40 points or 0.24% to 19,624.70.