Mumbai: Falling for the third straight session, the BSE Sensex declined over 151 points in opening trade on Thursday following weak asian markets amid fresh trade war fears.

The NSE gauge Nifty too fell about 51 points in opening deals.

The 30-share index tanked 151.70 points or 0.40 per cent to trade at 38,153.71. While the broader Nifty was down 51.95 points or 0.46 per cent at 11,307.95 in opening trade.

The Sensex fall was mainly driven by Vedanta, Axis bank, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and L&T.

On the other hand,Yes Bank, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, ITC Bajaj Auto, SBI and ICICI Bank were among the scrips trading in the green.

On Tuesday, the Sensex fell 361.92 points or 0.94 per cent to close 38,305.41. The broader Nifty too closed lower by 114.55 points, or 1 per cent, at 11,359.90.

Stock markets were shut on Wednesday on account of Gandhi Jayanti.

Investors remained cautious as weak American jobs data raised concerned about the global economy, while the WTO triggered fresh trade war fears after it allowed the US to impose tariffs on the European Union, experts said.

Asian markets on Thursday were trading in the red. Nikkei fell two per cent, while Hang Seng was trading lower by 0.7 per cent.

Markets in China are closed for a public holiday.

Meanwhile, the rupee was trading about 20 paise lower at 71.27 against the American currency in morning deals.

Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.03 per cent to USD 57.71 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth a net Rs 1,298.56 crore on Tuesday, according to provisional exchange data