Equity indices trade higher as banking, pharma stocks rally

Equity benchmark indices rose by nearly 1 per cent during early hours on Monday led by gains in banking, pharma and metal stocks.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 326 points or 0.94 per cent at 35,057 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 101 points or 0.99 per cent at 10,346.

Except for Nifty IT, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive terrain with Nifty PSU bank up by 2.6 per cent, private bank by 2.3 per cent, pharma by 1.8 per cent and metal by 1 per cent.

Among stocks, IndusInd Bank was up by 3.1 per cent to Rs 498.70 while ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank gained by 3 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively. Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance climbed up by 6.5 per cent and 5.2 per cent.

Pharma major Cipla ticked up by 5 per cent to Rs 668 per share. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries rose by 1.9 per cent to touch Rs 1,794.15 per share. The other prominent gainers were Bajaj Auto, Coal India and IndianOil Corporation.

However, those which lost were Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Mahindra & Mahindra, Britannia and Ad Ports.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks held flat while trying to shake off worries that rising coronavirus cases in the United States could slow down a quick economic rebound from the downturn triggered by the pandemic.

Japan's Nikkei eked out gains of just 0.1 per cent while MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was almost flat. Mainland Chinese stocks ticked up by 0.3 per cent but Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 0.3 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )