Equity indices slip into red; Sensex drops over 200 points, Nifty at 11,094

Equity benchmark indices snapped six sessions of gain to trade marginally lower during early hours on Wednesday's tracking mixed global cues and subdued opening of Asian markets.

At 3 PM, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 209 points or 0.55% at 37,720 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 70 points or 0.14% at 11,146.

In the early hours, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 46 points or 0.12% at 37,884 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 16 points or 0.14% at 11,146.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty PSU bank down by 1.5%, auto by 1.1% each, and IT by 0.6%.

Nifty pharma moved up by 1.8%. Among stocks, Hindustan Unilever dropped by 2.59% to Rs 2,258.05 per share despite the FMCG major reporting a 7% hike in its Q1 FY21 net profit at Rs 1,881 crore.

Hero MotoCorp skidded by 1.7%, Bajaj Auto by 1.4%, State Bank of India by 1.6%, and IndusInd Bank by 1.5 %.

Bajaj Finance too slipped by 1.6 % after reporting a 19 % fall in its Q1 consolidated net profit at Rs 962 crore.

Larsen & Toubro, UPL and Bharat Petroleum Corporation too traded with a negative bias.

However, Axis Bank advanced by 4.5% to Rs 466.45 per share despite posting a 19% dip in its Q1 net profit at Rs 1,112 crore.

Dr Reddy's was up by 3.2% and Cipla by 1.2%. ITC, Titan, Vedanta and Coal India were in the green with thin margins.

Meanwhile, Asian markets traded mixed after US President Donald Trump warned the US pandemic may get worse before it gets better.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 0.2% but Japan's Nikkei dipped by 0.2%.