Mumbai (Maharashtra) : Equity benchmark indices traded lower during early hours on Thursday as traders booked profit across counters, a day after the US Federal Reserve said that it sees interest rates near zero through 2022.

On the economy front, Standard and Poor’s affirmed its rating on India’s long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit at the lowest investment-grade level and retained its stable outlook on the economy. India’s long-term rating was affirmed at BBB-minus with a stable outlook while the short-term rating was held at A3.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 80 points or 0.23 per cent at 34,167 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 23 points or 0.23 per cent at 10,093.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed. Among stocks, Sun Pharma lost by 2.5 per cent to Rs 486.45 per share. IT majors Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys dipped by 1.1 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries lost by over 1 per cent to Rs 1,554.95 per share. Titan, Tata Steel, Bharti Infratel, GAIL and Kotak Mahindra Bank too traded with a negative bias.

However, IndusInd Bank continued its upward march and climbed 6.9 per cent to Rs 534 per share. The other prominent winners were Hero MotoCorp, Nestle India, IndianOil Corporation, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Auto.

Meanwhile, Asian markets traded lower following mixed close on Wall Street overnight after US Fed projected the economy to contract by 6.5 per cent in 2020.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan dipped by 0.3 per cent while Japan’s Nikkei slipped by 1.1 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down by 0.33 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite by 0.15 per cent.

The Dow had ended on Wednesday down 1.04 per cent while the S&P 500 lost by 0.53 per cent. (ANI)