Equity indices in the green, pharma and IT stocks gain

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices were in the positive zone during early hours on Monday following global cues.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex edged up by 254 points at 37,604 while the Nifty 50 gained by 66 points to 11,114. At the National Stock Exchange, most sectoral indices were in the green. Nifty pharma moved up by 1.7 percent, realty by 0.96 percent, IT by 0.88 percent and FMCG by 0.86 percent.

Among stocks, Bharti Infratel was the top gainer and moved up by 3.2 percent to trade at Rs 257.30 per share. Sun Pharma was up by 2.8 percent, Indiabulls Housing Finance by 2.7 percent, Dr. Reddy by 2.2 percent and Cipla by 1.5 percent.

But Yes Bank slipped by 2 percent and Grasim by 1.2 percent. ONGC, Tata Steel and GAIL too showed marginal losses.

Meanwhile, Asian stock markets tracked the Wall Street’s Friday rally on hopes of more stimulus from central banks around the world to prevent a global recession.

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.5 percent while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 1 percent. South Korea’s KOSPI advanced 0.7 percent and Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.7 percent.