Equity indices flat in early trade, Britannia gains by over 5 pc

Equity benchmark indices were flat during early hours on Wednesday as Asian stocks slipped with global investors doubting that the US-China trade deal will be signed anytime soon.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 19 points at 40,364 while the Nifty 50 gained by 7 points to 11,921. Except for Nifty FMCG, IT and metal, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red.

Among stocks, however, FMCG major Britannia gained by 5.5 per cent at Rs 3,291.65 per share. Tata Consultancy Services was up by 2.4 per cent, Yes Bank by 1.5 per cent, Reliance Industries and Nestle India by 1.2 per cent each.

However, GAIL fell by 2.3 per cent while Infosys and IndusInd Bank by 1.1 per cent each.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks slipped on growing worries that US-China trade talks are stalling and concern about intensifying unrest in Hong Kong.

MSCI's broadest index of AsiaPacific shares outside Japan fell by 1.01 per cent to the lowest in more than a week. Hong Kong shares were down by 1.8 per cent as protesters planned to paralyse parts of the Asian financial hub for a third day.

US President Donald Trump said a day earlier that a trade deal with China was close but gave no new details on when or where an agreement will be signed.

Washington and Beijing have imposed tariffs on each other's goods in a bitter dispute over Chinese trade practices that the Trump administration says are unfair.