Equity benchmarks tumbled in early trade on Friday in tandem with weak global market trends as investors sentiment remained muted in view of the COVID surge in some countries.

The 30-share BSE Sensex continued to remain under selling pressure for the fourth day running and tumbled 620.66 points to 60,205.56 in initial trade. On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty dropped 158.55 points to 17,968.80.

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From the Sensex pack, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, State Bank of India, Infosys, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance and Power Grid were the major laggards.

Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, Nestle and Tata Consultancy Services logged gains.

Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets in Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading lower, while Shanghai quoted in the green.

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The US markets had ended sharply lower on Thursday.

"The high market volatility of the last 6 days is likely to continue. There is an element of overreaction in the market to the COVID news," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The BSE benchmark declined 241.02 points or 0.39 per cent to finish at 60,826.22 on Thursday. The Nifty dropped 71.75 points or 0.39 per cent to settle at 18,127.35.

International oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.84 per cent to USD 81.66 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned buyers as they bought shares worth Rs 928.63 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

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