Equity indices flat on weak global cues, auto stocks surge
Jan 22, 2021
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 22 : Equity benchmark indices swung between minor gains and losses during early hours on Friday amid some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for global economy.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 33 points or 0.07 per cent at 49,592 while the Nifty 50 ticked lower by 17 points or 0.12 per cent to 14,573.
Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in mixed. Nifty auto advanced by 2.6 per cent and IT by 0.7 per cent but Nifty private bank was down by 0.9 per cent and pharma by 0.7 per cent.
Among stocks, Tata Motors continued to zoom ahead with gains of 4.7 per cent to Rs 304.25 per share. Bajaj Auto gained by 6 per cent, Hero MotoCorp by 4.1 per cent, Eicher Motors by 2.6 per cent and Maruti Suzuki by 1.5 per cent.
However, private lenders lost with Axis Bank dipping by 2 per cent, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank by 0.8 per cent each, and Kotak Mahindra Bank by 0.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, Asian shares eased from record highs as investors pulled back funds after a recent rally that was driven by hopes a massive US economic stimulus plan by incoming President Joe Biden to help temper the COVID-19 impact.
MSCI's broadest gauge of Asia Pacific stocks outside of Japan was off by 0.2 per cent while Japan's Nikkei eased by 0.4 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped by 0.1 per cent.
