Equity gauges plunge, auto and PSU bank stocks hit badly

Equity benchmark indices extended early losses during afternoon on Monday amid profit booking by traders in auto, IT and public sector bank stocks.

Market experts said the rise in fuel prices across international markets followed by its reverberations in domestic markets along with higher inflation expectations dampened investor sentiment.

At 1:15 pm, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 792 points or 1.56 per cent to 50,098 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 208 points or 1.39 per cent to 14,774.

Except for Nifty metal which moved up by 2.7 per cent, all other sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty auto down by 1.9 per cent, PSU bank by 2.7 per cent, IT by 2.2 per cent and pharma by 1.3 per cent.

Among stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra crashed by 5 per cent to Rs 835 per share while Maruti Suzuki skidded by 3 per cent. Eicher Motors was down by 2.7 per cent to Rs 2,513.00 per share.

Tech Mahindra lost by 3.7 per cent, Dr Reddy's by 3.4 per cent, Axis Bank by 3.6 per cent, HDFC by 2.9 per cent and SBI Life by 3.2 per cent.

However, metal stocks gained substantially with Hindalco up by 4.3 per cent, JSW Steel by 3.3 per cent and Tata Steel by 2.5 per cent. Besides, ONGC, HDFC Bank, Ad Ports, Britannia, Hero MotoCorp and Asian Paints traded higher.

Meanwhile, Asian share markets inched up as expectations for faster economic growth and inflation globally boosted commodities.

( With inputs from ANI )