Equities in the green, IT stocks in focus

Equity benchmark indices were in the green during early hours on Wednesday with Nifty IT surging by 2.4 per cent.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 175 points or 0.35 per cent at 49,574 while the Nifty 50 surged by 58 points or 0.4 per cent to 14,579.

Except for Nifty FMCG and financial service, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive zone with Nifty IT advancing by 2.4 per cent, auto by 0.9 per cent and pharma by 0.5 per cent.

Among stocks, Wipro was up by 3.1 per cent to Rs 443.60 per share while Tech Mahindra gained by 2.7 per cent, HCL Technologies by 2.2 per cent, Infosys by 2 per cent and Tata Consultancy Services by 1.7 per cent.

Tata Motors accelerated by 3.9 per cent to Rs 268.90 per share. HDFC Life, Eicher Motors and Hero MotoCorp too traded with a positive bias.

However, Grasim, NTPC, GAIL, UPL, Hindalco, IndusInd Bank and ITC were in losses.

Meanwhile, Asian shares climbed to a record high as US Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen advocated for a hefty fiscal relief package to help the world's largest economy ride out a pandemic-driven slump.

US President-elect Joe Biden, who will be sworn into office later on Wednesday, last week laid out a 1.9 trillion dollar stimulus package proposal to boost the economy and speed up the distribution of vaccines.

MSCI's Asia Pacific index outside Japan rose by 0.95 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng moved up by 1 per cent to approach its 2019 peak.

Japan's Nikkei, however, slipped 0.45 per cent on profit-taking.

(ANI)

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