Equities flat in volatile trade, Reliance gains by 7 pc

Equity benchmark indices fluctuated between gains and losses during early hours on Wednesday as the country braced up for a three-week lockdown to break the chain of deadly COVID-19 virus.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was down by 36 points or 0.14 per cent to 26,638 but the Nifty 50 edged higher by 20 points or 0.25 per cent to 7,821.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative terrain with Nifty PSU bank lower by 3.31 per cent, auto by 1.9 per cent and realty by 1.2 per cent.

Among stocks, IndusInd bank swung lower by nearly 8 per cent to Rs 287.40 per share while ICICI Bank lost by 3.9 per cent and State Bank of India by 3.4 per cent.

Mahindra & Mahindra dropped by 7.1 per cent, ITC by 6.1 per cent, HCL Technologies by 3.7 per cent and Asian Paints by 3.5 per cent.

However, index heavyweight Reliance Industries gained by 6.16 per cent to Rs 1,001.55 per share while FMCG major Nestle India was up by 3.8 per cent. The other prominent gainers were Grasim, Cipla, Tech Mahindra and Britannia.

Meanwhile, Asian shares extended their rally in the wake of Wall Street's strong rally as the US Congress appeared closer to passing a two trillion dollar stimulus package to mitigate the economic blow from coronavirus pandemic.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 1.7 per cent and South Korean gaining 3.5 per cent while Japan's Nikkei surged by 4.8 per cent.

On Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared by 11.37 per cent, its biggest one-day percentage gain since 1933.