Equity indices fall post-Budget, auto stocks slide

Equity benchmark indices were lower during early hours on Monday after the Union Budget last week which investors believed did not contain any radical proposals to shore up capital markets.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was down 378 points at 39,136 while the Nifty 50 plunged 119 points to 11,692. At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices except for metal were in the negative territory.

Among stocks, Punjab National Bank was down 7.9 per cent after reporting fraud of Rs 3,800 crore by Bhushan Power & Steel. The government-owned bank alleged the company misappropriated bank funds and manipulated books of accounts to raise funds from consortium lender banks.

Auto stock too suffered heavily. Hero MotorCorp skidded 3.6 per cent while Maruti was down 2.75 per cent. Bajaj Auto too slipped over 2 per cent. Larsen & Toubro suffered by more than 3 per cent while GAIL was down 2.4 per cent.

However, Yes Bank gained 4.4 per cent. Others which showed gains were Bharti Infratel, HCL Tech, Sun Pharma and JSW Steel.

Meanwhile, Asian shares were broadly weaker after tracking Wall Street which fell from record highs last week. Investors turned their attention to upcoming testimony from the US Federal Reserve Chairman after a strong jobs report cast doubt on the pace of rate cuts.

Japan's Nikkei faltered 0.9 per cent while Chinese shares were off 1.7 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.5 per cent. South Korea's KOSPI slipped by 1.8 per cent.