Sensex, Nifty open in red amidst global trade worries

Sensex, Nifty opened lower on Friday amidst the global trade worries due to friction between US and China. Key indices opened on a colourless note then soon turned into red.

The benchmark BSE index traded lower by 34.43 points to 33,562.37, while the Nifty 50 edged down 10.20 points, or 0.10%, to 10,314.95.

Among the early gainers were Sobha whose shares went up by seven per cent while Magma Fincorp was down by six per cent.

Reliance Communications, IndiGO and shares of Indian Oil will remain in focus today.

The Supreme Court on Thursday vacated a Bombay High Court order which had stayed the sale of assets of Anil Ambani-led telecom firm Reliance Communications (RCom).

The Bombay High Court had on March 8 dismissed RCom’s appeal against the order of a tribunal, which had restrained the sale of assets of the firm.

The apex court also dealt with the separate pleas filed by Reliance Infratel Ltd, a subsidiary of RCom, and State Bank of India (SBI) against an order passed by National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) staying the sale of tower asset to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

Budget carrier IndiGo, which had initially evinced interest in acquiring Air India's international operations, on Thursday said it was not in fray to bid for the national carrier as such option was not available under the disinvestment plan.

"From day one, IndiGo has expressed its interest primarily in the acquisition of Air India's international operation and Air India Express. However, that option is not available under the government's current disinvestment plan for Air India.Meanwhile, president Donald Trump on Thursday directed U.S. trade officials to identify tariffs on $100 billion more Chinese imports, upping the ante in an already high-stakes trade confrontation between the world's two largest economies.The further tariffs were being considered "in light of China's unfair retaliation" against earlier US trade actions, which included a proposed $50 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods, Trump said in a White House statement.

"This is what a trade war looks like, and what we have warned against from the start," said National Retail Federation President and CEO Matthew Shay.

US stock futures slid and the yen rose against the dollar on Friday after US President Donald Trump proposed additional tariffs on China, aggravating trade tensions and smothering a revival in broader investor risk appetite.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.25 percent. The index has spent the week swinging wildly in and out of negative territory amid the back-and-forth of the U.S.-China trade dispute.

Australian stocks slipped 0.35 percent and South Korea's KOSPI lost 0.3 percent. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.15 percent.The S&P 500 E-mini futures were down 1.2 percent, pointing to a lower start for Wall Street later in the session.