New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices were in the negative zone during early hours on Monday as concerns over a cut in supply from Libya sent oil prices higher.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 136 points to 41,810 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 43 points at 12,310. Except for Nifty FMCG and realty, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red.

Among stocks, IndianOil Corporation fell by 3.71 per cent at Rs 118.10 per share. IT majors too were down with HCL Technologies slipping by 1.6 per cent, Tata Consultancy Services by 1.3 per cent and Wipro by 1.1 per cent.

The other prominent losers were Zee Entertainment, UPL, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Adani Port, Bharti Airtel and Hero MotoCorp.

But Power Grid Corporation gained by 3.9 per cent at Rs 205.15 per cent. Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Bharti Infratel, ITC and Asian Paints witnessed marginal gains.

Meanwhile, Asian shares traded higher as Wall Street extended its run of record peaks on solid US economic data. But prices jumped as oilfields in southwest Libya began shutting down after forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar closed a pipeline, potentially reducing national output to a fraction of its normal level.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan firmed by 0.1 per cent after notching its highest close since June 2018. Japan’s Nikkei added 0.2 per cent to be near its highest in 15 months.

The Shanghai Composite was up by more than 0.29 per cent but the Hang Seng index slipped fractionally. (ANI)