Equity indices trade with positive bias, IT stocks gain
Mumbai, Maharashtra: Equity benchmark indices traded in the green with thin margins during early hours on Tuesday in line with positive cues from global markets.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 214 points or 0.42 percent at 50,609 while the Nifty 50 ticked up by 41 points or 0.28 percent to 14,972.
Except for Nifty IT and FMCG which rose by less than 1 percent, all other sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty metal down by 1.5 percent, PSU bank by 1.6 percent, and realty by 0.5 percent.
Among stocks, Asian Paints surged by 2.9 percent to Rs 2,423.50 per share while agro-chemicals major UPL was up by 2 percent. IT majors Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies gained by over 1 percent in the early session. However, Hindalco fell by 1.8 percent to Rs 327.60 per share, Tata Steel by 1.7 percent, and JSW Steel by 1.5 percent. Tata Communications slipped by 5.9 percent as the offer for sale (OFS) to divest the government's shareholding opened for institutional investors at a floor price of Rs 1,161 per share.
The others which lost were the State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Coal India, and Cipla. Meanwhile, Asian stocks rose to track an advance by Wall Street's main indexes to record highs as investors looked to key central bank meetings this week starting with the US Federal Reserve. An index of the region's share markets excluding Japan strengthened 0.7 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 gained by 0.6 percent while China's blue-chip CSI 300 index climbed by 0.7 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained by 0.7 percent.
