Equity indices flat in early trading, PSU banks gain

Equity benchmark indices swung between gains and losses during early hours on Monday with government-owned bank showing marginal gains.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 23 points at 40,380 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 2 points to 11,897. Except for Nifty auto, FMCG and IT, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty PSU bank nudging up by 1.04 per cent.

Among stocks, Bharti Petroleum Corporation gained by 2.8 per cent as the government aims to sell its stake in the company by March 2020. Bharti Airtel was up by 3.1 per cent, Bharti Infratel by 1.9 per cent, Grasim by 2.7 per cent and Zee Entertainment by 1.7 per cent.

However, Yes Bank dropped by 1.9 per cent to Rs 67.35 per share. The other prominent losers were GAIL, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Coal India.

Meanwhile, Asian shares moved higher after Beijing surprised markets by trimming a key interest rate for the first time since 2015. China's central bank cut rates on seven-day reverse repurchase agreements by five basis points to 2.5 per cent.

The development helped Shanghai blue chips recoup early losses to rise by 0.3 per cent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan also moved up by 0.3 per cent.

Japan's Nikkei added 0.38 per cent and was just short of its recent 13-month top.