Equities dither amid mixed global cues after coronavirus fears

Equity indices dithered in volatile trade during early hours on Tuesday, a day after plunging by over 800 points as the number of coronavirus cases outside China increased.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 99 points to 40,462 while the Nifty 50 was up by 27 points at 11,857.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty pharma down by 0.94 per cent but metal and FMCG gained by 0.66 per cent each.

Among stocks, ONGC gained by nearly 2 per cent at Rs 100 per share while Hindustan Lever was up by 1.4 per cent at Rs 2,246 apiece after the FMCG major announced formation of a new wholly-owned subsidiary to leverage new growth opportunities.

The other prominent gainers were NTPC, Coal India, IndianOil Corporation and JSW Steel.

However, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy's lost by 1.7 per cent each. HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Titan, Tata Motors, Adani Ports and Larsen & Toubro traded with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asian share markets tried to stabilise with South Korea's hard-hit market edging up by 0.8 per cent. Japan's Nikkei was still down by 2.8 per cent but just catching up to the global sell-off.

European and US stocks had suffered their biggest loses since mid-2016 on Monday amid fears that coronavirus was morphing into a pandemic which could cripple global supply chains and inflict greater economic damage than first thought.

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