Stock market opens in red; Sensex down by 250 points amid weak global cues

Equity benchmark indices traded lower during early hours on Wednesday following losses in Asian markets after yesterday`s rout in Wall Street.

Forecasts of double-digit contraction by several global rating agencies in FY21 GDP, rising coronavirus cases and geopolitical tensions contributed to the nervousness among investors.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 259 points or 0.68% at 38,106 while the Nifty 50 was down by 79 points or 0.7% at 11,238.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty PSU bank slipping by 3%, metal by 2.2% and private bank by 1.8%.

Among stocks, State Bank of India dropped by 3.4% to Rs 197 per share, Axis Bank by 2.3% and ICICI Bank by 2.1% each.

AstraZeneca Pharma India`s stock crashed by 10.4% to Rs 3,773.35 per unit after its parent company delayed testing of a coronavirus vaccine.

The other prominent losers were Hindalco, ONGC, GAIL, Coal India, and IndianOil Corporation.

However, those which showed some gains were Hero MotoCorp, Wipro, HDFC Life, Titan, and Nestle India.

Meanwhile, Asian shares fell after a rout of technology shares sank Wall Street for a third consecutive day and major drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc delayed testing of a coronavirus vaccine.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan slid by 1.12% while shares in China fell by 1.16%. Japan`s Nikkei skidded by 1.69%.