Equity indices sluggish, Bajaj Auto falls 1.5 pc

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 16 : Equity frontline indices were muted during early hours on Monday with auto and metal stocks showing declining trends.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 33 points or 0.06 per cent at 55,470 while the Nifty 50 moved up by half a point to 16,530.
Except for Nifty IT, realty and FMCG which gained marginally, all sectoral indices were in the negative terrain with Nifty auto slipping by 0.6 per cent, metal and pharma by 0.5 per cent each, and private bank by 0.2 per cent.
Among stocks, Bajaj Auto skidded by 1.5 per cent to Rs 3,766.80 per share while Maruti Suzuki was down by 1.2 per cent and Hero MotoCorp by 0.9 per cent.
Hindalco, JSW Steel, Power Grid Corporation, Coal India, Titan and Asian Paints too traded with a negative bias. However, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Axis Bank, Nestle India and ITC were in the green zone.
Meanwhile, most Asian equity markets fell in early trading as concerns over rising coronavirus cases in Japan continued to weigh on the sentiment.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slipped by 0.74 per cent while Japan's Nikkei was down by 1.86 per cent. South Korean markets were closed for a holiday.