Equity indices trade 1 % lower, Bandhan Bank dips by 9.8 %

Equity benchmark indices were on a weak wicket during early hours on Monday tracking Asian peers as the global surge of new coronavirus cases showed no sign of abating.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 416 points or 1.11 per cent at 37,191 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 113 points or 1.02 per cent at 10,961.

Except for Nifty metal and auto, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty private bank down by 2 per cent, financial service by 1.3 per cent and realty by 1.1 per cent.

Among stocks, shares of Bandhan Bank slid by 9.8 per cent to Rs 311.30 per share after reports said that its 34.56 crore shares -- or 21.5 per cent of total equity -- exchanged hands in 27 large trades.

IndusInd Bank was down by 3.7 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank by 3.1 per cent, Axis Bank by 1.8 per cent and HDFC Bank by 1.7 per cent. Bajaj Finance too slipped by 1.7 per cent at Rs 3,194.95 per share.

The other prominent losers were UPL, HDFC Life, ONGC and Cipla. However, Tata Motors jumped by 5.7 per cent to Rs 110.60 per share while Hero MotoCorp gained by 1.6 per cent, Bajaj Auto by 0.8 per cent and Maruti Suzuki by 0.6 per cent.

Metal majors JSW Steel and Tata Steel along with HCL Technologies, Titan and Wipro traded with a positive bias.

Meanwhile, Asian share markets were mixed as US lawmakers struggled to hammer out a new stimulus plan amid a global surge of new coronavirus cases.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan dipped by 0.2 per cent, Japan's Nikkei added gains of 2.1 per cent while South Korea shares were flat. 

-ANI

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