Equities trade volatile with buying seen in auto, infra, energy sectors

Equity benchmark indices oscillated between gains and losses in the opening trade on Wednesday as investors awaited fresh cues ahead of the Union Budget for 2019-20 on Friday.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was down 12 points at 39,805 while the Nifty 50 slipped 3 points to 11,907.

At the National Stock Exchange, sectoral indices were mixed. Nifty FMCG, IT, metal and pharma were in the red while banking, auto and realty sector showed marginal advances.

Among stocks, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Yes Bank gained over 2 per cent while IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints and Mahindra & Mahindra traded 1 to 1.3 per cent higher.

Those which showed losses were Vedanta, Dr Reddy, ONGC, GAIL and Hindalco.

Meanwhile, Asian shares were subdued as initial enthusiasm over the latest US-China trade truce was overtaken by fresh concerns over Washington's threat of tariffs on additional European goods.

Global growth concerns also weighed on investor confidence. Japan's Nikkei was down 0.4 per cent along with equities in South Korea and Hong Kong slipping marginally.