Equity indices slip amid selling pressure in auto, financial sectors

Mumbai (Maharashtra): Equity benchmark indices traded lower during early hours on Friday as selling pressure built up in auto and financial sectors.

A day earlier, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had unveiled details of the second tranche of Rs 20 lakh crore economic package with a focus on migrant workers, street vendors and small farmers.

There was no positive impact of that in today’s trading as investors remained concerned about the economic fallout of coronavirus pandemic even as businesses and cities readied to open up after the countrywide lockdown is lifted in phases.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 249 points or 0.8 per cent at 30,874 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 61 points or 0.67 per cent at 9,082.

Except for Nifty metal which was up by 1.2 per cent, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative zone with Nifty auto down by 1.4 per cent, private bank by 1 per cent and financial service by 0.6 per cent.

Auto stocks suffered the most with Mahindra & Mahindra down by 4 per cent to Rs 384.15 per share. Maruti slipped by 2.1 per cent, Hero MotoCorp by 1.8 per cent and Eicher Motors by 1.4 per cent.

Private lenders Axis Bank and ICICI Bank fell by 1.5 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively while HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and UPL traded with a negative bias.

However, those which showed marginal gains were Bharat Petroleum Corporation, ONGC, Tata Steel, Hindalco and Britannia.

Meanwhile, Asia’s stock markets were flat as traders remained concerned about the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus infections across the globe.

Japan’s Nikkei was up by 0.27 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng crawled up by 0.3 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi ticked up by 0.1 per cent. (ANI)