Equity indices subdued, aviation stocks gain

Equity benchmark indices traded flat with a positive bias during early hours on Thursday with aviation stocks on an upswing.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex up by 70 points or 0.18 per cent at 39,156 while the Nifty 50 gained by 27 points or 0.23 per cent at 11,562.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty auto gaining by 1.2 per cent and IT by 0.9 per cent.

Aviation stocks gained ground after the government permitted airlines to increase the number of passenger flights to 60 per cent of their pre-COVID capacity.

SpiceJet was up by 2.9 per cent to Rs 52.35 per share while InterGlobe Aviation gained by 1.8 per cent at Rs 1,269.15.

Bharti Infratel ticked up by 5 per cent at Rs 205.95 per share, UPL by 2.9 per cent and Tata Motors by 1.9 per cent.

IT majors advanced with Wipro up by 3 per cent, Tata Consultancy Services by 1.6 per cent, Infosys by 1.5 per cent and Tech Mahindra by 1.4 per cent.

However, those which lost were ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India and Bajaj Finance.

Meanwhile, Asian equities traded strongly amid the prospect of additional US stimulus. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan climbed by 0.5 per cent.

Japan Nikkei added gains of 1.3 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up by 0.2 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )