Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices traded higher during early hours on Thursday with metal and energy stocks rising on global economic recovery prospects.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 418 points or 0.9 per cent at 46,862 while the Nifty 50 advanced by 122 points or 0.9 per cent to 13,723.
Except for Nifty IT which dipped by 0.5 per cent, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty metal rising by 2.5 per cent, PSU bank by 1.8 per cent, financial service by 1.3 per cent and auto by 1 per cent.Among stocks, India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) rose by 12.8 per cent on divestment buzz to Rs 341.95 per share.
Vedanta Ltd jumped by 9.9 per cent following reports that the promoters plan to launch an offer to qualified institutional buyers to buy up to 4.98 per cent stake in the base metals to crude oil producer.
The other major winners were ONGC which rose by 4.5 per cent, GAIL by 3 per cent, IndiaOil Corporation by 2.7 per cent, JSW Steel by 2.9 per cent and Hindalco by 2.7 per cent.
However, those which lost due to profit booking were Infosys, Wipro, Dr Reddy, Cipla, Sun Pharma and Nestle India. Meanwhile, Asian shares moved up ahead of the Christmas break as Britain and the European Union closed in on a free-trade deal and investors placed bets on global economic recovery prospects.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 0.14 per cent while Tokyo shares ticked up by 0.43 per cent. (ANI)
