Equity gauges edge higher, HDFC Bank gains 4.4 pc

Equity benchmark indices scaled up during early hours on Tuesday with broad-based buying across financial, auto and other sectors.

Equity benchmark indices scaled up during early hours on Tuesday with broad-based buying across financial, auto, and other sectors. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 319 points or 0.86 percent at 37,259 while the Nifty 50 gained by 88 points or 0.81 percent at 10,980.

Except for Nifty IT, pharma, and PSU bank, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty auto moving up by 1.4 percent, financial service by 1.2 percent, and realty by 0.9 percent. Among stocks, HDFC Bank was the top winner after climbing 4.4 percent to Rs 1,046.50 per share. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries offset yesterday's losses and gained 1.7 percent to Rs 2,043.25 per unit.

The other prominent gainers were Hero MotoCorp, Adani Ports, Britannia, ONGC and HDFC Life. However, IndusInd Bank was down by 2.9 percent. IT stocks too slipped with HCL Technologies down by 1.5 percent, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys by 0.8 percent each.

Meanwhile, Asian markets rose after strong US manufacturing data and gains in tech stocks helped investors look past worries about the coronavirus and global economy. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 0.9 percent while shares in China nudged up 0.1 percent. Tokyo shares also jumped by more than 1 percent.