Equity indices erase early gains, banking stocks suffer

Equity benchmark indices erased early gains and closed marginally lower on Tuesday with Nifty PSU bank slipping by 1.3 per cent.

The BSE S-P Sensex closed 31 points or 0.06 per cent lower at 50,364 while the Nifty 50 skidded by 19 points or 0.13 per cent to 14,910.

Most of the sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative terrain except from Nifty IT which was up by 1.3 per cent, FMCG by 1 per cent and auto stocks by 0.1 per cent.

The banking sector traded with a negative bias as Nifty PSU bank slipped by 1.3 per cent, private bank by 1 per cent and financial service skidded by 0.8 per cent.

Among stocks, Asian Paints surged by 4.7 per cent to Rs 2,466 per share, Dr Reddy was up by 2.6 per cent and Hindustan Unilever, HCL Tech gained by 1.6 per cent each.

ITC edged higher by 1.4 per cent to Rs 208 per share.

Among other gainers were Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, TCS, Britannia and Maruti Suzuki.

However, Cipla skidded by 1.6 per cent to Rs 793 per share and Tata Steel by 1.5 per cent to Rs 725 per share.

Banking scrips also suffered with ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank closing with a negative bias.

Among the other major losers were BPCL, Shree Cements, Divi's Laboratories and NTPC.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's Kopsi gained by 0.7 per cent each while Japan's Nikkei 225 skidded by 0.2 per cent.