Benchmark Sensex declined by over 148 points in early trade today, tracking a weak trend in global markets as the trade spat between the US and China intensified.


Unabated capital outflows by foreign funds and profit-booking by retail investors too dampened sentiment.


The 30-share index, which had lost 73.88 points in the previous session, drifted down by 148.34 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 35,399.92. The NSE Nifty too was quoting lower by 52.55 points, or 0.49 per cent, at 10,747.30.


All sectoral indices, led by oil and gas, power, realty and power were in the negative zone, falling up to 1.31 per cent.


The laggards included Vedanta, HUL, Infosys, Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki, RIL, ICICI Bank, PowerGrid and IndusInd Bank, falling by up to 1.64 per cent. Stocks of oil marketing companies such as HPCL, BPCL and IOC, which had a good day yesterday, came under selling pressure in line with the overall trend and fell up to 3 per cent. -- PTI