Sensex tanks 500 points after opening higher, Nifty down over 1%

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty fell sharply during morning trade hours on Friday, dragged down by weak financials and metal stocks.

Benchmark stock market indices fell sharply after opening higher on Friday, pulled down by weakness in financial stocks. While IT stocks had opened higher, the gains collapsed just an hour into trading on Friday. The S&P BSE Sensex was trading over 450 points lower to 51,845.01 at 10:55 am, while Nifty50 fell one per cent at 15,535.40. By 11 am, Sensex had already shed 500 points. All Nifty sectoral indexes were trading in red and the Nifty Metal Index fell over 3 per cent, emerging as the biggest loser in early trade.