Equity indices trade with negative bias, financial stocks suffer

Equity benchmark indices traded in red with thin margins during early hours on March 22 tracking mixed cues from Asian markets. At 10:20 am, the BSE SandP Sensex was down by 278 points or 0.6 per cent at 49,580 while the Nifty 50 fell by 57 points or 0.4 per cent to 14,686. Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchanges were in the negative terrain expected from Nifty pharma which was up by 1.3 per cent while realty was up by 1.2 per cent. Nifty FMCG, metal and IT also gained marginally. Nifty private bank slipped by 0.9 per cent, financial services by 0.7 per cent. Among stocks, Powergrid and IndusInd Bank skidded by 2 per cent each while Reliance fell by 1.9 per cent to Rs 2,041 per share.