Equity indices trade lower, banking stocks hit

Key equity indices slipped during early hours on Friday due to an unabated rise in COVID cases and unfavourable global cues.

At 10:15 am, the BSE SandP Sensex was down by 396 points or 0.8 per cent at 49,370 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 68 points or 0.46 per cent to 14,827.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty financial service slipping by 1.4 per cent, private bank by 0.9 per cent and auto by 0.4 per cent.

But Nifty metal rose by 1.3 per cent and pharma by 0.6 per cent.

HDFC Bank dropped by 2.9 per cent to Rs 1,430 per share while ICICI Bank cracked by 1.3 per cent and Kotak Mahindra Bank by 0.9 per cent.