Equities flat in lacklustre trading, metal stocks lose shine

Mumbai: Equity indices were flat during early hours on Wednesday tracking global cues but auto stocks showed some gains.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 34 points at 37,362 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by one point to 11,018.

At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the red except for auto and IT. The nifty metal was down by 1.5 percent and realty by 0.9 percent.

Among auto stocks, Eicher Motors gained by 1.9 percent to Rs 16,200.60 per share while Hero MotoCorp was up by 1.2 percent, Maruti by 1.1 percent, Mahindra & Mahindra by 1 percent and Bajaj Auto by 0.8 percent.

The other prominent gainers were Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, and UltraTech Cement.

But Tata Motors was down by 2.9 percent, Yes Bank by 2.7 percent, Hindalco by 2.4 percent, Vedanta by 2.3 percent and Indiabulls Housing Finance by 2.1 percent.

Tata Steel, Britannia, Dr. Reddy’s and HCL Technologies also showed marginal losses.

Meanwhile, Asian shares were mixed as worries about the global recession and trade wars continued. Traders awaited the Group of Seven summit this weekend for clues on what additional steps policymakers will take to boost economic growth.

Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.4 percent while Shanghai blue chips lost 0.1 percent. US President Donald Trump showed no signs of backing down in his tussle with China, saying that a confrontation is necessary even if it causes short-term harm to the US economy.