Equity indices negative terrain, IT stocks take a beating

Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty IT down by 0.9%

Mumbai: Equity indices languished in the negative terrain during early hours on Tuesday (December 10) as investors awaited the outcome of new European Central Bank (ECB) boss Christine Lagarde's first policy meeting later this week.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 11 points to 40,476 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 6 points at 11,931. Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty IT down by 0.9%.

Among stocks, Tata Consultancy Services slipped by 1.3% to Rs 2,033 per share. Tech Mahindra was down by 1.2%, Wipro traded 0.8% lower while HCL Technologies suffered a loss of 0.7%.

The other major losers were Zee Entertainment, Bharti Infratel, Axis Bank, Yes Bank and Power Grid Corporation. However, those which showed some gains were Sun Pharma, Cipla, ONGC, UPL and Grasim.

Meanwhile, Asian equity markets were a tad lower as investors refrained from making major bets before December 15, when the next round of US tariffs on Chinese imports is due to take effect. A Chinese commerce ministry official said a day earlier that Beijing hopes to make a trade deal with Washington as soon as possible.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down by 0.04% while Japan's Nikkei lost by 0.23%.