New Delhi, Jul 10: Domestic equity markets opened lower on Friday on the back of weak global cues as investors weigh concerns about new lockdown derailing the economic recovery. The 30-stock benchmark Sensex was down 150 points at to hover at 36,600 levels while Nifty slipped below the crucial 10,800-mark.

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Among the top Sensex gainers are Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, TCS and RIL. Top laggards include IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank and TechM. Of 30 Sensex shares, 25 were in the red.

Among other individual stocks, Tata Motors rose nearly 1 per cent. Jaguar Land Rover, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, sold 74,067 units in the April-June quarter, down 42.4 per cent year-on-year. The company managed to sell 35,334 units in June which accounted for nearly half of its sales in Q1FY21.

The prolonged lockdown as a result of covid-19 led to temporary shutdowns of most retailers and the company’s manufacturing plants in April and much of May.

The sentiments are also impacted as the coronavirus cases continued to rise at an alarming pace as the nation recorded the highest single-day spike of over 26,502 new Covid-19 cases and 475 deaths in the last 24 hours, latest health ministry data showed. The total number of active cases now stands at 2,30,599 .

Asian Markets

Even Asian shares opened on a weaker note on Friday as record-breaking new coronavirus cases and deaths in several US states fuelled concerns that new lockdowns could impact the economic recovery. Australia ASX All Ordinaries fell 0.07 per cent, China's Shanghai SE Composite Index slipped 1.71 per cent,  Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1.22 per cent, as per the business daily Mint. Singapore's SGX Nifty dipped 0.7 per cent, indicating a weak opening for Indian benchmark indices.

Global markets

Wall Street's major averages finished mixed on Thursday as investors pored through the newly-released weekly report on US jobless claims.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 361.19 points, or 1.39 per cent, to 25,706.09. The S&P 500 was down 17.89 points, or 0.56 per cent, to 3,152.05. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 55.25 points, or 0.53 per cent, to 10,547.75, Xinhua reported.

Nine of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors closed lower, with energy and financials down 4.04 per cent and 2.33 per cent, respectively, leading the laggards. Technology and consumer discretionary climbed 0.15 per cent and 0.11 per cent, respectively, the only two gainers.

Meanwhile, U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded mostly higher, with eight of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P US Listed China 50 index ending the day on an upbeat note.

On the data front, US initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, registered 1.314 million in the week ending July 4, following a revised 1.413 million in the prior week, as the pandemic continues to weigh on the labor market, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday.

 (With inputs from IANS)