Equities flat in lacklustre trading, metal stocks lose shine

Equity indices were flat during early hours on Wednesday tracking global cues but auto stocks showed some gains.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 34 points at 37,362 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by one point to 11,018.

At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the red except for auto and IT. Nifty metal was down by 1.5 per cent and realty by 0.9 per cent.

Among auto stocks, Eicher Motors gained by 1.9 per cent to Rs 16,200.60 per share while Hero MotoCorp was up by 1.2 per cent, Maruti by 1.1 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra by 1 per cent and Bajaj Auto by 0.8 per cent.

The other prominent gainers were Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and UltraTech Cement.

But Tata Motors was down by 2.9 per cent, Yes Bank by 2.7 per cent, Hindalco by 2.4 per cent, Vedanta by 2.3 per cent and Indiabulls Housing Finance by 2.1 per cent.

Tata Steel, Britannia, Dr Reddy's and HCL Technologies also showed marginal losses.

Meanwhile, Asian shares were mixed as worries about global recession and trade wars continued. Traders awaited the Group of Seven summit this weekend for clues on what additional steps policymakers will take to boost economic growth.

Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.4 per cent while Shanghai blue chips lost 0.1 per cent. US President Donald Trump showed no signs of backing down in his tussle with China, saying that a confrontation is necessary even if it causes short-term harm to the US economy.