Opening session: Equity indices flat on weak global cues, auto stocks surge

Equity benchmark indices swung between minor gains and losses during early hours on Friday amid some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for global economy.

At 10:15 am, the BSE SandP Sensex was down by 33 points or 0.07 per cent at 49,592 while the Nifty 50 ticked lower by 17 points or 0.12 per cent to 14,573.Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in mixed.

Nifty auto advanced by 2.6 per cent and IT by 0.7 per cent but Nifty private bank was down by 0.9 per cent and pharma by 0.7 per cent.

Among stocks, Tata Motors continued to zoom ahead with gains of 4.7 per cent to Rs 304.25 per share.

Bajaj Auto gained by 6 per cent, Hero MotoCorp by 4.1 per cent, Eicher Motors by 2.6 per cent and Maruti Suzuki by 1.5 per cent.