Equity benchmark indices witnessed sharp volatility during early hours on Monday while Asian shares inched lower as fresh lockdowns in the United Kingdom to curb the spread of a new coronavirus strain dampened investor sentiment.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 10 points or 0.02 per cent at 46,970 but the Nifty 50 slipped by 14 points or 0.1 per cent to 13,747.
Except for Nifty IT pharma and realty, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty private bank and auto dipping by 0.8 per cent each, metal by 0.6 per cent and financial service by 0.4 per cent.
Among stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra skidded by 2.2 per cent to Rs 717.65 per share while Tata Motors was down by 2 per cent to Rs 176.80.
Private banks like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank too were in the red along with energy majors GAIL, ONGC and Power Grid Corporation.
However, index heavyweight Reliance Industries gained by 1.03 per cent to Rs 2,012.10 per share, Larsen & Toubro by 3.4 per cent, Cipla by 1.8 per cent and Sun Pharma by 1.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks faltered as unease over a new coronavirus strain that was shutting much of the United Kingdom offset news a deal had finally been struck on a long-awaited US stimulus bill.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan dipped by 0.2 per cent. Japan's Nikkei reversed early gains to be down by 0.6 per cent, off its highest since April 1991.
( With inputs from ANI )
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