Equity indices edge higher; Sensex up by 319 points, Nifty at 10,980

Equity benchmark indices scaled up during early hours on Tuesday with broad-based buying across financial, auto, and other sectors.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 319 points or 0.86% at 37,259 while the Nifty 50 gained by 88 points or 0.81% at 10,980.

Except for Nifty IT, pharma, and PSU bank, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty auto moving up by 1.4%, financial service by 1.2%, and realty by 0.9%.

Among stocks, HDFC Bank was the top winner after climbing 4.4% to Rs 1,046.50 per share.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries offset yesterday`s losses and gained 1.7% to Rs 2,043.25 per unit.

The other prominent gainers were Hero MotoCorp, Adani Ports, Britannia, ONGC and HDFC Life. However, IndusInd Bank was down by 2.9%.

IT stocks too slipped with HCL Technologies down by 1.5%, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys by 0.8% each.

Meanwhile, Asian markets rose after strong US manufacturing data and gains in tech stocks helped investors look past worries about the coronavirus and global economy.MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 0.9% while shares in China nudged up 0.1%.

Tokyo shares also jumped by more than 1%.