Mumbai, April 24 : The domestic equity markets saw negative performance in early hours on Friday amid elevated geopolitical tensions and the Q4 earnings season.

Sensex was trading at 77,263, down 0.51 per cent or 400 points, while Nifty was down 0.41 per cent, or 100 points, in early trade amid panic selling in IT, financial and pharma stocks. However, support was seen in FMCG and chemical scrips.

Cipla, Infosys, Dr Reddyâ??s Laboratories, Sun Pharma, TCS and ICICI Bank were among the top laggards.

On the sectoral front, several indices in the red zone, with the Nifty IT index falling 1.57 per cent. The Nifty Private Bank index declined 0.31 per cent, while the Nifty Pharma index was down 0.27 per cent.

Analysts said that given the prevailing global uncertainties and elevated volatility, a cautious and selective investment strategy is recommended.

They advised investors to accumulate fundamentally strong stocks during market corrections.

â??Fresh long positions should ideally be initiated only after the Nifty decisively breaks above and sustains the 24,500 level, which would signal improving sentiment and the possibility of a more sustained bullish trend,â?? analysts noted.

Market sentiment remains fragile and highly news-driven, with near-term direction likely to be influenced by geopolitical developments and movements in crude oil prices, they added.

Brent crude jumped nearly 2 per cent to $107 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose around 2 per cent to $97.6 from the previous close.

In Asian markets, the Nikkei was trading 0.43 per cent higher at 59,394, the Hang Seng declined 0.37 per cent to 25,819, and the KOSPI was down 0.40 per cent to 6,450.15.

On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their selling streak for the fourth consecutive session on Thursday and offloaded equities worth Rs 3,254 crore. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased equities worth Rs 941 crore.

/IANS