North Korea fears strike again, Sensex slips 59 points in early trade

Market made a subdued start today, in line with a sluggish Asian opening, as trading of barbs between the US and North Korea made investors edgy.

The BSE 30-share benchmark after rising briefly to 31,693.59 at the outset, slipped back to quote lower by 59.12 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 31,567.51. The gauge had fallen 797.13 points in the previous five sessions.

FMCG, consumer durables, banking and PSU banking were in the red, losing by up to 0.32 per cent. The broader NSE Nifty too fell by 26.05 points, or 0.26 per cent, at 9,846.55. The rupee depreciating by 18 paise to a fresh six-month low of 65.28 against the dollar in early trade and spiking crude prices overseas following Turkish threats to block Kurdish oil exports hurt investor sentiment.

Brokers said that apart from continuous foreign fund outflows, Asia saw losses the US and North Korea ratchet up their war of words over Pyongyang's nuclear programme, which
led to slide in the key indices here.

The laggards were Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Dr Reddy's, HDFC Ltd, Coal India and SBI, weakening up to 2.14 per cent. In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.05 per cent while Japan's Nikkei shed 0.10 per cent in early trade today.

Shanghai Composite was also down 0.16 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.24 per cent yesterday.