Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices were volatile with a negative bias during morning trade on Wednesday in line with subdued Asian cues.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 121 points at 37,520 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 44 points to 11,062.
At the National Stock Exchange, sectoral indices were mixed with Nifty metal down by 1.37 per cent. Nifty auto, FMCG, PSU bank and private bank too were in the negative territory.
Among stocks, Tata Steel lost by 2.2 per cent, JSW Steel by 1.6 per cent, Vedanta by 1.3 per cent and Hindalco by 1 per cent. Indiabulls Housing Finance shed gains by 2.5 per cent, Yes Bank by 1.7 per cent, Bajaj Finserv by 1.2 per cent and Kotak Mahindra Bank by 1.1 per cent.
Among the other prominent losers were FMCG major Hindustan Lever and auto maker Maruti.
Those which showed marginal gains were HCL Technologies, Tata Motors, Cipla, GAIL and Zee Entertainment.
Meanwhile, Asian shares witnessed cautious gains as deeper worries about the global economy and trade kept a lid on investor sentiment.
Japan’s Nikkei rose by 0.15 per cent and Korea’s KOSPI by 0.4 per cent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.06 per cent due to lower Chinese markets.
Market experts say the trade dispute between the United States and China — now in its second year — is straining the global economy, forcing policy makers to respond with interest rate cuts and stimulus measures to bolster growth.