Equity indices under pressure, focus on banking and telecom stocks

Equity benchmark gauges were under pressure during early hours on Monday with investors eyeing banking and telecom stocks after the Supreme Court last week directed telcos to clear their dues totalling over Rs one lakh crore to the government by March 17.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex edged lower by 26 points to 41,231 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 7 points at 12,106.

Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty PSU bank down by 1.57 per cent. Several public sector and private bank have a large loan exposure to the telecom sector which appears headed for a duopoly after the apex court verdict.

Among stocks, Yes Bank was down by 2.8 per cent at Rs 37.80 per share while ICICI Bank dipped by 1.37 per cent and State Bank of India by 1.16 per cent.

ONGC lost by 2.76 per cent after reporting 44 per cent decline in third quarter net profit at Rs 5,384 crore. The other prominent losers were Bharat Petroleum Corporation, IndianOil Corporation, Coal India, Cipla, Adani Ports and Bajaj Finserv.

However, GAIL, IndusInd Bank, Titan, Hindustan Lever and UPL gained by thin margins.

Meanwhile, Asian shares moved toward a three-week top as Chinese efforts to cushion the blow from a coronavirus outbreak cheered investors.

But Japanese stocks faltered amid growing recession risks. Japan's Nikkei stumbled by 0.7 per cent after the country's economy shrank at the fastest pace in the December quarter since the second quarter of 2014.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was firmer at 557.30. The gains were helped largely by Chinese shares with the blue-chip index adding 0.4 per cent after the country's central bank lowered one of its key interest rates and injected more liquidity into the system.