The Sensex fell by nearly 148 points in opening trade today. The 30-share barometer, which rallied by over 823 points in the previous three sessions, declined by 148 points, or 0.80 per cent, to 18,298 points in the first few minutes of trade today.

In a similar fashion, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index slid by 48 points, or 0.88 per cent, to 5,473 points.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up by 0.79 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.51 per cent in early trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.07 per cent higher in yesterday’s trade.