Mumbai, May 8 (ANI): Equity benchmark indices traded higher during early hours on Friday in line with positive global cues and expectations of an economic stimulus to cushion the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 396 points or 1.26 per cent at 31,839 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 114 points or 1.24 per cent at 9,313. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive terrain Nifty private bank up by 1.8 per cent, financial service by 1.4 per cent and FMCG by 1.5 per cent.
Shares of Reliance Industries climbed 2.4 per cent to Rs 1,543.55 per share after Vista Equity Partners announced an investment of Rs 11,367 crore in its Jio Platforms for a 2.32 per cent stake. This is Jio Platforms’ third deal after Facebook and Silver Lake’s share acquisition plans over the last two weeks.
Dr Reddy’s gained by 4.4 per cent, Hindustan Lever by 3.3 per cent and Hindalco by 2.5 per cent. Private sector lenders IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Axis Bank were up by 2.8 per cent, 2.7 per cent, 2.5 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.
However, Power Grid Corporation trade 2 per cent lower. NTPC, HCL Technologies, IndianOil Corporation and Asian Paints also traded with a negative bias.
Meanwhile, Asian shares rose as investors focused on talks between US and Chinese trade officials and solid corporate earnings.
MSCI’s broadest gauge of Asian share indices outside Japan was 1.1 per cent higher and Japan’s Nikkei added 1.78 per cent. China’s blue-chip CSI300 index gained by 0.86 per cent.
A day earlier, US indices turned green as investors turned optimistic following upbeat earnings reports and looked past the weak economic data due to lockdowns to combat the virus spread.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed by 0.89 per cent, the S&P rose by 1.15 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.41 per cent.
