Equity indicies up marginally, metal stocks gain

Equity benchmark indices rose marginally during early hours on Tuesday with metal and select IT stocks gaining momentum.

However, investors watched the tally of Covid-19's second wave and its impact on demand slowdown due to lockdowns and curfews.

At 10:30 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 229 points or 0.47 per cent at 48,615 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 74 points or 0.51 per cent to 14,559.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in green zone with Nifty metal surging by 2.35 per cent, realty by 0.7 per cent, auto by 0.5 per cent and FMCG by 0.2 per cent.

Among stocks, Hindalco moved up by 5.9 per cent to Rs 369 per share while Tata Steel rose by 2.6 per cent. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries lifted by 1.8 per cent to Rs 1,972.25 per share.

The other prominent winners were Hero MotoCorp, Titan, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Finance. However, among the losers were Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SBI Life, HDFC Life and Nestle India.

Meanwhile, Asian shares fell as caution ahead of a US Federal Reserve meeting and a slew of corporate earnings offset growing optimism about the global economic recovery from Covid-19 blow.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.14 per cent. Stocks in Tokyo edged 0.11 per cent lower.

Analysts said some investors may be taking profits on equities but the sentiment remains positive due to rising coronavirus vaccination rates in many countries.

( With inputs from ANI )