Equity indices trade higher, metal stocks surge

Equity benchmark indices traded higher during early hours on Thursday amid muted global cues with metal stocks witnessing gains.At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 415 points or 0.82 per cent at 50,077 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 124 points or 0.84 per cent to 14,934.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty metal and IT up by 1.4 per cent each, realty by 1 per cent and auto by 0.9 per cent.

Among stocks, Hindalco was up by 2.6 per cent to Rs 361.35 per share and Tata Steel by 1.8 per cent to Rs 890.50 per unit.

The other prominent winners were Tata Motors, Grasim, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services and HDFC.

However, those which lost were ONGC, Bajaj Auto, SBI Life, Dr Reddy's and Reliance Industries.

Meanwhile, Asian share markets lagged as US stock futures nudged to another record high after the Federal Reserve underlined its commitment to keeping policy super loose.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was flat. Japan's Nikkei eased by 0.3 per cent and Chinese blue chips by 0.1 per cent with trading subdued.

( With inputs from ANI )