Equity gauges fall in early trading, auto and financial stocks in the red

Equity benchmark indices fell during early hours on Tuesday in line with Asian stocks as heavy rains in the financial capital prompted authorities to declare a public holiday.

Investors were cautious after Monday's rally ahead of the Economic Survey and Union Budget later this week.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down 104 points at 39,583 while the Nifty 50 shed 30 points to 11,833. Except for FMCG, IT and metal, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative territory.

Nifty realty was down over 1.4 per cent. Yes Bank dived 5.8 per cent to Rs 102.75 per share.

Cox and Kings was down 4.9 per cent as the company defaulted on Rs 50 crore payment out of the aggregate amount of Rs 65 crore.

Major auto stocks too tumbled after reporting poor sales.

Tata Motors, Hero MotorCorp, Bajaj Auto and Eicher Motors were all in the red.

However, energy stocks like ONGC, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and NTPC showed marginal improvements.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks were mixed as enthusiasm over the US-China trade truce proved short-lived as weak global manufacturing activity data reinforced worries about slowing growth.

Hong Kong shares climbed as the city`s market reopened after a holiday despite violent local protests overnight. Japanese and South Korean shares were little changed.