Equities in the green with thin margins, pharma majors gain

Equity benchmark indices traded higher with narrow gains during early hours on Tuesday amid positive sentiment across global markets.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 161 points or 0.41 per cent at 38,917 while the Nifty 50 gained by 41 points or 0.36 per cent at 11,481.

Except for Nifty IT and realty, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive zone with Nifty pharma gaining by 2.2 per cent and financial service by 1.1 per cent.

Among stocks, Cipla advanced by 3.2 per cent to Rs 744.80 per share while Sun Pharma moved up by 2.4 per cent and Dr Reddy's by 2.1 per cent.

The others which gained were ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, UPL, HDFC, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and NTPC.

However, IT stocks dipped with Tech Mahindra losing by 1.6 per cent, HCL Technology by 1.1 per cent and Tata Consultancy Services by 0.4 per cent. Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors too traded with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asian equities extended gains with investor sentiment supported by Chinese data and optimism about COVID-19 vaccines.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan advanced by 0.3 per cent for a fourth straight day of gains.

Chinese blue chips added 0.4 per cent after China's industrial output rose by 5.6 per cent in August from a year ago. Japan's Nikkei shed 0.8 per cent while South Korean shares rose by 0.3 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )