Equity benchmark indices trade in negative zone over fresh trade conflict

Equity benchmark indices traded in the negative zone during early hours on Wednesday amid global sell-off on worries over brewing US-China trade conflict. At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices except PSU bank were in the red.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down 248 points at 38,029 while the Nifty 50 slipped 69 points to 11,429. Among the prominent losers was Vedanta, which dipped 2.6 per cent, a day after reporting a substantial dip in profit during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018-19.

Heavyweight Reliance Industries shed 1.8 per cent due to unstable crude oil prices globally. ONGC, Zee Entertainment, and Bajaj Auto also lost over 1.6 per cent. Stocks which showed some gains were JSW Steel, Power Grid, Indian Oil, Adani Ports, and Coal India.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks dropped as the US' threat of higher tariffs on imports from China continued to reverberate through markets. Washington has accused Beijing of backtracking from commitments made during trade negotiations in recent weeks. US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will raise tariffs on 200 billion dollars worth of Chinese goods to 25 per cent from 10 per cent. On Tuesday, Beijing said that Chinese Vice Premier Liu will visit Washington on Thursday and Friday for trade talks in a bid to salvage the deal.