Equity indices flat as banking, financial scrips shed gains

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], December 30 (ANI): Equity benchmark indices were flat during early hours on Wednesday as traders booked profits on banking and financial counters.
A day earlier, the Reserve Bank of India said that with nearly 40 per cent of the outstanding loans under a moratorium, banking and non-banking financial sectors may face a sharp deterioration in asset quality going forward.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 48 points or 0.1 per cent at 47,565 while the Nifty 50 ticked lower by 19 points or 0.14 per cent to 13,913.
Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty PSU bank dipping by 0.8 per cent, private bank by 0.1 per cent and pharma by 0.6 per cent.
Among stocks, the country biggest lender State Bank of India edged lower by 1 per cent to Rs 275.10 per share and IndusInd Bank lost by 1.1 per cent to Rs 902.30 per unit. The other major losers were Cipla, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, Hindalco and Britannia.
However, UPL gained by 3.6 per cent to Rs 471.30 per share while Eicher Motors accelerated by 1.5 per cent. Hero MotoCorp, HCL Technologies, SBI Life, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Finance too traded with a positive bias.
Meanwhile, Asian shares hit a record high as investors bet on a strong economic recovery next year.
MSCI's gauge of Asia Pacific shares excluding Japan rose by 0.6 per cent to hit a record high, led by gains in Chinese shares, bringing its gains so far this year to 18.2 per cent.
Japan's Nikkei share average lost by 0.58 per cent on its last trading day of 2020 after jumping to a 30-year high on Tuesday. For the year, it was up by 15.8 per cent. (ANI)