Mumbai, April 15 (ANI): Equity benchmark indices moved up during early hours on Wednesday following positive cues from global markets. Though the gains were capped by the government’s decision to extend the COVID-19 lockdown till May 3, reports said another stimulus package is in the making aimed at some of the worst-affected sectors. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 758 points or 2.56 per cent at 31,448 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 222 points at 9,216.
All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty pharma gaining by 3.76 per cent, FMCG by 2.6 per cent, PSU bank by 2.3 per cent and realty by 1.9 per cent.
Among stocks, chemical major UPL gained by 10 per cent to Rs 357.40 per share. Hindalco was up by 4.8 per cent, Sun Pharma by 4.7 per cent, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank by 4.7 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively.
The other major gainers were Britannia, Hindustan Lever, Larsen & Toubro and Grasim. However, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Infratel, Bajaj Finance and Maruti traded with a negative bias.
Meanwhile, Asian share markets were on the edge as warnings of the worst global recession since the 1930s underlined economic damage already done even as some countries tried to re-open for business.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan edged up by 0.3 per cent to a fresh one-month top while Shanghai blue chips eased by 0.2 per cent.
Japan’s Nikkei was down by 0.26 per cent but South Korea’s Kospi moved up by 1.72 per cent.
