Mumbai: Equity benchmark parameters edged higher during early hours on Thursday following remarks by US President Donald Trump that eased fears of a larger conflict with Iran.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 404 points to 41,221 while the Nifty 50 ticked up by 126 points at 12,151.
Except for Nifty IT which dipped slightly, all sectoral indices were in the positive zone. Nifty PSU bank gained by 1.97 percent each, realty by 1.85 percent and metal by 1.27 percent.
Among stocks, Bharti Infratel advanced by 4.6 percent at Rs 247.25 per share to emerging as the top performer. Metal majors JSW Steel and Tata Steel gained by 3.5 percent and 1.7 percent while IndusInd Bank moved up by 2.4 percent, ICICI Bank by 1.9 percent and State Bank of India by 1.8 percent.
The other prominent gainers were Zee Entertainment, Tata Motors, UPL and Adani Ports.
However, IT majors Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and HCL Technologies showed marginal losses.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks rebounded and oil prices edged up as the United States and Iran backed away from the brink of further conflict in the Middle East.
Trump responded overnight to an Iranian attack on US forces with sanctions, not violence. Iran offered no immediate signal it will retaliate further over a January 3 US strike that killed one of its senior military commanders.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 1 percent as did Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Shanghai blue chips CSI300. Japan’s Nikkei rose by 1.8 percent, lifting stocks to their highest for the year so far.