Stock market opens in green; Sensex up by 161 points, Nifty at 11,481

Equity benchmark indices traded higher with narrow gains during early hours on Tuesday amid positive sentiment across global markets.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 161 points or 0.41% at 38,917 while the Nifty 50 gained by 41 points or 0.36% at 11,481.Except for Nifty IT and realty, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive zone with Nifty pharma gaining by 2.2% and financial service by 1.1%.

Among stocks, Cipla advanced by 3.2% to Rs 744.80 per share while Sun Pharma moved up by 2.4% and Dr Reddy`s by 2.1%.

The others which gained were ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, UPL, HDFC, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and NTPC.

However, IT stocks dipped with Tech Mahindra losing by 1.6%, HCL Technology by 1.1% and Tata Consultancy Services by 0.4%. Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors too traded with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asian equities extended gains with investor sentiment supported by Chinese data and optimism about COVID-19 vaccines.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan advanced by 0.3% for a fourth straight day of gains.

Chinese blue chips added 0.4% after China`s industrial output rose by 5.6% in August from a year ago. Japan`s Nikkei shed 0.8% while South Korean shares rose by 0.3%.