Sensex slips by 173 points in choppy trade, banking stocks suffer

Equity benchmark indices closed half a per cent lower in Wednesday's volatile session with banking stocks sliding in the last hour amid weak global cues.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 173 points lower at 29,894 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 43 points to 8,749.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty realty down by 1.3 per cent and bank by 0.6 per cent.

Among stocks, ICICI Bank dipped by 2.6 per cent to Rs 317.65 per share while State Bank of India was down by 1.9 per cent.

Tata Consultancy Services and Titan lost by 3.7 per cent each, Hindalco by 2.7 per cent, Bajaj Finserv by 2.5 per cent, JSW Steel by 2.4 per cent and Coal India by 1.8 per cent.

However, Vedanta closed 5.4 per cent higher at Rs 70.40 per share. Pharma majors Sun Pharma and Cipla gained by 4.8 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks stepped back after two sessions of sharp gains as investors remained cautious about the coronavirus while death tolls were still mounting across the globe.

Though the number of COVID-19 hospitalisations seemed to be levelling off in New York state, deaths across the United States jumped by a record 1,800.

Mainland China's new coronavirus cases also doubled in 24 hours due to infected overseas travellers.

Japan's Nikkei added 2.13 per cent but Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost by 1.17 per cent, South Korea's Kospi by 0.9 per cent and Shanghai composite by 0.19 per cent.

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