Equity indices tick up on global cues

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices edged higher during early hours on Thursday with metal and pharma stocks showing the most gains.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 130 points to 40,543 while the Nifty 50 gained 47 points at 11,958. All sectoral indices were in the positive zone with Nifty metal up by 1.5 percent, pharma by 1.1 percent and PSU bank by 1 percent.

Among stocks, Vedanta moved up by 2.7 percent at Rs 142.25 per share while Hindalco edged higher by 2.4 percent, Tata Steel by 2.1 percent and JSW Steel by 1.4 percent. Pharma major Cipla added gains of 2.6 percent at Rs 461.75 per share and Sun Pharma was up by 1.4 percent.

The other prominent winners were Yes Bank, UPL, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, and Eicher Motors. However, ONGC, Bharti Infratel, HCL Technologies, and HDFC were on a low swing.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks rose to the highest in a month after the US Federal Reserve signaled that interest rates are likely to remain accommodative. But the upcoming election in Britain and a deadline for US-China trade talks kept most investors cautious.

The Fed kept interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting a day earlier. That helped MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan climb by 0.8 percent to the highest since November 11. Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose by 0.18 percent.

Reports said US President Donald Trump is expected to meet soon with top advisers to discuss tariffs on nearly 160 billion dollars of Chinese consumer goods that are scheduled to take effect on December 15.