Equity indices trade flat, auto stocks gain

Equity benchmark indices traded flat with a positive bias during early hours on Wednesday while Asian stocks rose ahead of the US Federal Reserve's view on the economy.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 60 points or 0.15 per cent at 39,105 while the Nifty 50 gained by 19 points or 0.16 per cent at 11,540.

Except for Nifty IT and PSU bank, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive zone with Nifty auto gaining by 2 per cent and realty by 1 per cent.

Among stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra accelerated by 4.7 per cent to Rs 642.40 per share while Bajaj Auto moved up by 3 per cent. Tata Motors gained by 2.5 per cent, Hero MotoCorp by 1.7 per cent, Eicher Motors by 1.6 per cent and Maruti Suzuki by 1.2 per cent.

Prestige Estate Projects gained by 2.8 per cent while Oberoi Realty and DLF witnessed marginal gains.

However, those which lost were HCL Technologies, Wipro, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Cipla, JSW Steel and Asian Paints.

Meanwhile, most Asian shares rose along a rally driven by upbeat Chinese and US economic data as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's view on the economy at its policy meeting.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.5 per cent higher but Chinese blue-chips pulled back 0.1 per cent as investors booked profits after three days of gains.

Japan's Nikkei was up by 0.14 per cent as investors awaited parliamentary approval of Yoshihide Suga as the country's next prime minister later today.

( With inputs from ANI )