The Sensex and Nifty slumped in early trade amid lower Asian markets and the ongoing corporate earnings season.While the Sensex fell 470 points or 1.37% lower at 34,301 level, the Nifty shed 127.70 points or 1.22% to 10,325. Top Sensex losers were Reliance Industries (5.10%), Infosys (2.95%) and YES Bank (2.27%).

On Wednesday, Reliance Industries posted its highest ever net profit at Rs 9,516 crore in Q2 FY 19, up 17.35 per cent compared to Rs 8,109 crore, in the same period of the previous financial year, the company said in a statement. Mukesh Ambani-led oil-to-telecom conglomerate reported a revenue rise of 54.5 per cent to Rs 1,56,291 crore.

Sun Pharma (1.58%), Asian Paints (1.52%) and Adani Ports (1.26%) were the top Sensex gainers.

Meanwhile, the mid cap and small cap indices were trading 0.34% higher and 0.36% lower in early trade.

Market breadth was negative with 591 stocks trading higher compared to 852 falling on the BSE.

Its retail business, which comprises of 9,146 stores across 5,800-plus towns and cities, saw pre-tax business profit jump 213 per cent to Rs 1,392 crore on the back of more than doubling of revenues to Rs 32,436 crore.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 140.02 crore, while domestic institutional investors sold shares to the tune of Rs 343.11 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional data available on the BSE.

Stock exchanges and money markets were closed yesterday on account of “Dussehra”.

On Wednesday, the Sensex finally ended 1.09% lower at 34,779 points. The Nifty too ended 131 points or 1.24% lower at 10,453. Prior to that, the Sensex had risen nearly 1,161 points in the past three sessions on the back of unabated buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and rebound in global equity markets.

Global markets

US stocks slumped on Thursday as investors continued to sell shares of technology and internet companies, industrials, and companies that rely on consumer spending.

The S&P 500 index shed 40.43 points, or 1.4 percent, to 2,768.78. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 327.23 points, or 1.3 percent, to 25,379.45. It was down as much as 470 earlier.

The Nasdaq composite sank 157.56 points, or 2.1 percent, to 7,485.14. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks declined 28.85 points, or 1.8 percent, to 1,560.75.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index sank 0.8 percent and the Kospi in South Korea lost 0.9 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was little changed, and remained near its lowest level since May 2017.