Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices were in the negative zone during early hours on Friday led by a drop in IT and metal stocks.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down 206 points at 37,105 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 64 points to 10,966. At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the red with Nifty metal down by 1.7 percent, media by 1.3 percent and IT by 1.1 percent.
Among stocks, Indiabulls Housing Finance plunged by 8.3 percent to Rs 505.60 per share while Hindalco slipped by 3 percent, Vedanta by 2.5 percent, JSW Steel by 1.7 percent and Tata Motors by 1.5 percent. IT major Wipro was down by 1.4 percent at Rs 247.50 per share.
But Yes Bank was up by 1.6 percent and UPL by 1.5 percent. FMCG major ITC, ONGC and Bajaj Finance witnessed marginal gains.
Meanwhile, Asian shares gained some ground after a turbulent week as China hinted at more fiscal support for its economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan edging up by 0.2 percent thought it was still down 1 percent for the week.
Japan’s Nikkei was firmer by 0.09 percent Shanghai blue chips rose 0.7 percent. The US-China trade dispute remained a drag after Beijing vowed a day earlier to counter the latest tariffs on 300 billion dollars of Chinese goods.