Equity gauges in the green, metal and auto stocks gain

Mumbai (Maharashtra): Equity benchmark indices rebounded during early hours on Tuesday in line with global cues with metal and auto stocks gaining ground.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 536 points or 1.78 per cent at 30,565 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 159 points or 1.8 per cent at 8,982.

Except for PSU bank, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive zone with Nifty metal and auto up by 1.7 per cent each, private bank by 1.5 per cent and pharma by 0.7 per cent.

Among stocks, telecom major Bharti Airtel gained by 7.9 per cent to Rs 580.90 per share despite reporting a net loss of Rs 5,237 crore in the January to March quarter. However, the average revenue per user (ARPU) came in at Rs 154 as compared to Rs 123 a year ago.

JSW Steel moved up by 3.5 per cent, Hindalco by 2.9 per cent and Tata Steel by 2.4 per cent. Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki ticked up by 3.4 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively.

The other prominent gainers were ONGC, Adani Ports, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank. But UPL, IndusInd Bank and Vedanta traded with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asian shares jumped as investors hoped the global economy will recover quickly following a successful early-stage trial of a coronavirus vaccine.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside of Japan rose by 1.5 per cent to two-week highs. Hong Kong’s Hang Sang was up by 2 per cent, South Korea Kospi added 1.8 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei added 2 per cent to the highest since early March.

The gains followed a rally on Wall Street overnight after data from Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine, the first to be tested in the United States, showed it produced protective anti-bodies in a small group of healthy volunteers. (ANI)