Equity indices back in negative zone, Wipro and Bharti Infratel gain

Equity benchmark indices were lower again during early hours on Thursday tracking global cues as both US and Asian markets fell on less-than-expected dovish remarks from the US Fed Reserve.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was down 239 points at 37,243 while the Nifty 50 slipped 44 points to 11,042. At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the red with Nifty metal down by 1.5 per cent and pharma by 1.2 per cent.

Among stocks, Coffee Day Enterprises plunged another 10 per cent for the third day in a row and traded at Rs 110.95 per share, a day after Cafe Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha's body was found near the Netravathi river in Mangaluru.

UPL was down by 5.4 per cent, Hindalco by 3.3 per cent, Vedanta by 3.2 per cent, JSW Steel by 2.1 per cent and HDFC by 1.9 per cent

However, Wipro gained by 3.5 per cent and Bharti Infratel by 2.3 per cent. Power Grid, IndusInd Bank and GAIL showed marginal gains.

Meanwhile, Asian shares fell to six-week lows as the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points for the first time in a decade but signalled that this will not be a long chain of cuts.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan faltered 0.6 per cent. Japan's Nikkei reversed early losses and were slightly higher. Losses in Chinese shares accelerated after it opened lower with the blue-chip index down 0.8 per cent.

.