Equity indices subdued, auto stocks suffer

Equity benchmark indices were subdued during early hours on Friday amid weak global cues with auto majors taking a hit.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 38 points or 0.07 per cent at 51,287 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 44 points or 0.29 per cent to 15,075.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty auto down by 1.1 per cent, metal by 0.9 per cent and IT by 0.5 per cent. But Nifty PSU bank and FMCG rose by 0.5 per cent each.

Among stocks, Tata Motors lost by 2.1 per cent to Rs 316.85 per share while Hero MotoCorp skidded by 2 per cent, Eicher Motors by 1.9 per cent and Bajaj Auto by 1.6 per cent.

The other losers were Power Grid Corporation, Tata Steel, Hindalco, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

Among those which gained were GAIL which moved up by 3.3 per cent, Hindustan Unilever, Ad Ports, Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks pulled back from all-time peaks with dented investor confidence in a faster economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside of Japan was down by 0.1 per cent while Japan's Nikkei fell by 0.4 per cent.

Chinese shares started in the red with blue-chip CSI300 off by 0.6 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )