Equity indices trade in green; Sensex up by 291 points, Nifty at 11,347

Equity benchmark indices surged for the third consecutive session during early hours on Tuesday with metal and financial stocks leading the rally.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 291 points or 0.76% at 38,473 while the Nifty 50 gained by 77 points or 0.68% at 11,347.

Except for Nifty pharma which slipped marginally, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty metal gaining by 2.9%, private bank by 1%, and financial service by 0.9%.

Among stocks, Tata Steel moved up by 3.8% to Rs 426 per share while Hindalco gained by 3.6% and JSW Steel by 3.2%.

The other prominent winners were HDFC, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Wipro, Asian Paints, and ITC.

However, Titan lost by 3.9% a day after the jewelry-to-eyewear maker reported a net standalone loss of Rs 270 crore for the quarter ended June.

It had reported a profit of Rs 371 crore in the year-ago period.

The others which lost were Dr. Reddy`s, Cipla, Sun Pharma, UPL, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors.

Meanwhile, Asian stock markets rose as investors awaited a meeting between the top US and Chinese trade officials later this week to review the first six months of phase one trade deal.MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up by 1%.

Japan`s Nikkei returned from a holiday with a 1.7% gain and the Hang Seng bounced by 2.2%.