Sensex falls by 216 points, IT and banking stocks drag

Equity benchmark indices drifted lower by half per cent on Friday, dragged by IT and banking stocks amid continuing global concerns over the US-China trade deal.

Equity benchmark indices drifted lower by half per cent on Friday, dragged by IT and banking stocks amid continuing global concerns over the US-China trade deal. The BSE S&P Sensex closed 216 points or 0.53 per cent lower at 40,359 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 54 points to 11,914. Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty IT dropping by 1.9 per cent and bank by 0.7 per cent.

Among stocks, Infosys lost by 2.8 per cent to close at Rs 692.95 per share. Tata Consultancy Services ticked down by 2.4 per cent, Wipro by 1.8 per cent, HCL Technologies by 1.6 per cent and Tech Mahindra by 1.5 per cent. Bharti Infratel lost by over 4 per cent while Bharti Airtel showed a loss of 1.8 per cent. Even Kotak Mahindra Bank closed 1.6 per cent lower.

However, metal majors showed handsome gains with Tata Steel moving up by 4.2 per cent, JSW Steel by 2.4 per cent and Vedanta by 2.2 per cent. Meanwhile, Asian equities posted mild gains amid persistent worries over the status of trade negotiations between China and the United States.

Japan's Nikkei was up by 0.33 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng by 0.48 per cent and South Korea's Kospi by 0.26 per cent. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)