Equities edge lower, metal and auto stocks plunge

Equity benchmark indices dipped during early hours on Wednesday with metal and auto stocks witnessing profit booking by traders.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 297 points or 0.61 per cent at 48,051 while the Nifty 50 lowered by 91 points or 0.64 per cent to 14,148.

Except for Nifty IT, all other sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty metal dipping by 1.4 per cent, private bank and realty by 1.3 per cent each and auto by 1 per cent.

Among stocks, Hindalco cracked by 3 per cent to Rs 233.05 per share while Tata Steel and JSW Steel lost by 2.3 per cent each.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries shed 1.8 per cent to Rs 1,904.70 per share. IndusInd Bank lost by 1.7 per cent.

The other prominent losers were Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Hindustan Lever and IndianOil Corporation.

However, Wipro gained by 2.8 per cent to Rs 449.45 per share and Tech Mahindra by 1.6 per cent. Maruti Suzuki, ITC, Britannia and Nestle India too trade with a positive bias.

Meanwhile, Asian equities slipped as investors looked to the US Federal Reserve's guidance on its monetary policy.

MSCI's gauge of Asian ex-Japan shares slipped by 0.3 per cent, dragged lower by profit-taking in resource shares.

But Japan's Nikkei rose by 0.2 per cent while South Korea and Taiwan eked out small gains.

( With inputs from ANI )