The Indian markets opened on a weak note tracking global cues. The BSE Sensex is at 16,346, down 115 points and the Nifty opened at 4,885, down 50 points.
World stocks and oil prices fell on Thursday as a rise in Spain's borrowing costs to almost 7% at an auction fed fears that the euro-zone debt crisis could spread further. Key Wall Street stock indices fell more than 1 per cent, with the Nasdaq slumping more than 2%.
Asian shares fell for a fourth day in a row and the dollar firmed on Friday as Europe's funding difficulties intensified. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1% and Japan's Nikkei stock average opened down 1.2%.
Back home, analysts suggest the Nifty could see a sharp sell-off and test sub 4,800-levels in trade today.
Among the sectoral indices, BSE Oil & Gas, Bankex, Power and Metal indices, down 1-2% each, are leading the losses.
Reliance Industries, GAIL, Oil India and Essar Oil, down 2-3% each, are the prominent losers from the Oil & Gas space.
Union Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank, down 3-4% each, are the prominent losers among the financials.
On the Sensex, BHEL, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Hindalco Industries and Maruti Suzuki, down 3% each, are the major losers.
Cipla has moved up nearly 1% at Rs 314. The other prominent gainers from the pack include Sun Pharma Industries, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, up 1% each.
The overall market breadth is negative as 1,009 decline against 333 advancing ones on the BSE.