Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices were in the negative territory during morning trade on Thursday as foreign institutional investors continued to be net sellers due to global risk of recession.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 201 points at 37,251 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 60 points to 10,986.
At the National Stock Exchange, sectoral indices were mixed. Nifty banks, financial services, FMCG and IT were in the red while auto, metal, pharma and realty were in the positive zone.
Among stocks, Indiabulls Housing Finance dropped by 4.2 percent to Rs 437.80 per share. Private lenders Yes Bank and ICICI Bank also slipped by 2.8 percent and 0.9 percent respectively. The other prominent losers were HDFC, Britannia, Grasim, Hero MotoCorp and Bharti Infratel.
However, Sun Pharma, Eicher Motors, Coal India, IndusInd Bank, and Larsen & Toubro witnessed marginal gains.
Meanwhile, Asian shares edged lower as global recession worries from intensifying US-China frictions and signals of a no-deal Brexit drove investors to safer harbors.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.38 percent, Singapore shares hit eight-month lows, while Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.44 percent.
Market experts say the trade dispute between the United States and China — now in its second year — is straining the global economy, forcing policymakers to respond with interest rate cuts and stimulus measures to bolster growth.