Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices rose for third consecutive time during early hours on Wednesday after strong corporate earnings with auto and banking scrips leading the rally.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 384 points or 0.78 per cent at 49,328 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 109 points or 0.74 per cent to 14,762.
Except for Nifty metal and pharma which dipped slightly, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in green zone with Nifty auto accelerating by 1.9 per cent, PSU bank by 1.6 per cent and financial service by 1 per cent.
Shares of Bajaj Group companies rose dramatically with Bajaj Auto up by 3.9 per cent, Bajaj Finance by 2.7 per cent and Bajaj Finserv by 1.9 per cent.
Eicher Motors was up by 2.5 per cent, Hero MotoCorp and Tata Motors by 2.2 per cent each. The other major gainers were IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, Tata Consumer Products and UPL.
However, among the losers were JSW Steel, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Britannia, Nestle India, Axis Bank, Dr Reddy's and Cipla.
Meanwhile, Asian shares were mixed as already high valuations discouraged investors from buying equities ahead of a closely-watched US Federal Reserve meeting.
Stocks in Tokyo edged 0.35 per cent higher while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index moved up by 0.34. South Korea's Kospi was down by 0.74 per cent. (ANI)
