Equity indices flat as banking financial scrips shed gains

Equity benchmark indices were flat during early hours on Dec 30 as traders booked profits on banking and financial counters. A day earlier, the Reserve Bank of India said that with nearly 40 per cent of the outstanding loans under a moratorium, banking and non-banking financial sectors may face a sharp deterioration in asset quality going forward. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 48 points or 0.1 per cent at 47,565 while the Nifty 50 ticked lower by 19 points or 0.14 per cent to 13,913. Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty PSU bank dipping by 0.8 per cent, private bank by 0.1 per cent and pharma by 0.6 per cent.