Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Nov 11 (ANI): Equity barometers remained range-bound on Monday and closed flat as escalating violence in Hong Kong pushed Asian stocks to their worst day since August while uncertainty lingered over an ongoing trade war between the United States and China.

On the other hand, Moody's Investors Service said its outlook for sovereign creditworthiness in 2020 is negative due to unpredictable geopolitical environment that is exacerbating a gradual slowdown in GDP growth trends.

However, the BSE SP Sensex closed 21 points up at 40,345 while the Nifty 50 moved higher by 5 points to 11,913. Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty auto, FMCG, IT, metal and pharma in the red while private bank gained by 1.38 per cent and realty by 0.7 per cent.

Among stocks, private lenders showed handsome gains with Yes Bank moving up by 5.7 per cent, ICICI Bank by 1.6 per cent, IndusInd Bank by 1.5 per cent and Kotak Mahindra Bank by 1.1 per cent.

The other prominent gainers were Zee Entertainment, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, GAIL, Tata Motors and Bharti Infratel.

But Nestle India declined by 2.3 per cent along with Reliance Industries, Grasim and Asian Paints. So did auto majors like Hero MotoCorp and Eicher Motors besides metal majors Hindalco and Vedanta.

Meanwhile, shares across the globe fell as escalating violence in Hong Kong pushed Asian stocks to their worst day since August. With continuing pro-democracy unrest, Hong Kong police shot and wounded a protester.

The MSCI world equity index which tracks shares in 47 countries slipped by 0.2 per cent with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index falling by 2.7 per cent and leading losses across Asia.

Investors were also focused on the US-China trade talks after President Donald Trump said on Saturday that talks with China have moved more slowly than he would have liked. He said reports that the United States is willing to lift tariffs are incorrect, adding that Beijing wanted a deal more than he did. (ANI)