Mumbai (Maharashtra): Equity benchmark gauges were in the positive zone during early hours on Friday taking cues from Asian markets with buying in banking and technology stocks.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex edged higher by 74 points to 41,534 while the Nifty 50 ticked up by 21 points at 12,196.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty PSU bank and IT up by 0.7 per cent each.

Among stocks, Yes Bank added gains of 6.4 per cent at Rs 39.60 per share after the troubled private sector lender said it has received non-binding expressions of interest from several prominent investors.

Tata Motors was up by 3.5 per cent at Rs 175.40 while UPL advanced by 2 per cent at Rs 590.85. The other prominent gainers were Grasim, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and HCL Technologies.

However, Eicher Motors, IndusInd Bank, Coal India, Dr Reddy’s and ONGC dropped with thin margins.

Meanwhile, Asian shares edged up with investors hoping that governments will make provisions to soften the impact on their economies from coronavirus epidemic.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan ticked up by 0.3 per cent, led by gains in Hong Kong and South Korea. But Japan’s Nikkei dropped by 0.55 per cent after news of first coronavirus death. (ANI)