Opening Bell: Banking, pharma stocks pull down equity indices

Equity benchmark indices cracked during early hours on January 28 amid weak global cues and as caution set in ahead of the Union Budget.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S-P Sensex was down by 339 points or 0.71 per cent at 47,071 while the Nifty 50 lowered by 98 points or 0.7 per cent to 13,870.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative zone with Nifty PSU bank dipping by 2.4 per cent, private bank by 0.8 per cent, FMCG by 1.3 per cent, pharma and IT by 1.2 per cent each, and auto by 0.8 per cent.