Trade War: Stocks flat ahead of US-China meet to ease trade disputes

Equity benchmark indices traded flat during early hours on Friday as Asian stocks stumbled ahead of US President US Donald Trump's meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to ease simmering trade disputes.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was down 10 points at 39,576 while the Nifty 50 slipped two points to 11,840.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed. Nifty bank, financial services, metal and realty were in negative zone but FMCG, IT, pharma and PSU bank were in the green.

Among stocks, Cox & Kings tumbled 10 per cent after reports that the company has defaulted on the payment of commercial papers due to cash flow mismatch.

Indiabulls Housing Finance dropped over two per cent. Bharti Infratel, Bharti Airtel, Yes Bank and IndusInd Bank traded over one per cent lower.

However, Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy, Britannia, Sun Pharma and Adani Ports witnessed marginal gains.

Meanwhile, Asian shares stumbled amid rising doubts that the anticipated meeting between Trump and Xi this weekend could lead to an easing of trade tensions.

The uncertainty over whether the talks will see any progress over ending the year-long trade war between the world's two largest economies comes amid signs of rising risks to global growth.

-ANI