Equity indicies dip, banking stock under pressure

Equity benchmark indices were subdued during early hours on Friday on record single-day spike of over three lakh Covid-19 cases for second consecutive day.

Investors said concerns over the economic impact of lockdowns and weakness in rupee is hitting market sentiment.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 79 points or 0.16 per cent at 48,002 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 16 points or 0.11 per cent to 14,390.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty financial service dipping by 0.6 per cent, FMCG by 0.5 per cent and auto by 0.3 per cent. But Nifty PSU bank rose by 1.1 per cent and metal by 1 per cent.

Among stocks, Hindustan Unilever dropped by 1.5 per cent to Rs 2,314.20 per share and Britannia by 0.9 per cent to Rs 3,717.

ICICI Bank slipped by 1.5 per cent, HDFC Bank by 0.6 per cent, Bajaj Finance by 0.7 per cent and HDFC by 0.8 per cent.

However, those which gained marginally were Power Grid Corporation, Tata Steel, SBI Life, NTPC and IndusInd Bank.

Meanwhile, Asian shares rose supported by a decision by the European Central Bank to maintain stimulus. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan shook off early small losses to rise by 0.3 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 0.93 per cent and Seoul's Kospi added 0.1 per cent. Japan's Nikkei stock index slid 0.7 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )