Equities edge higher on global cues, IT and banking stocks surge

Equity benchmark indices moved up by over 4 per cent during early hours on Tuesday, mirroring gains in Asian markets amid tentative signs that coronavirus may be levelling off in New York and receding in Europe.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 1,202 points or 4.36 per cent at 28,793 while the Nifty 50 ticked up by 349 points or 4.32 per cent at 8,433.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty private bank gaining by 7.2 per cent, IT and auto by 5.1 per cent each, pharma by 4.8 per cent and FMCG by 4 per cent.

Among stocks, private sector lender IndusInd Bank jumped by 19 per cent to Rs 372.75 per share. Axis Bank and ICICI Bank too surged ahead by 11.9 per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra gained 13.1 per cent, Sun Pharma 7.5 per cent, HCL Technologies 7.3 per cent, Hindustan Lever 6.6 per cent and Infosys 6 per cent. Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv traded with a positive bias.

Meanwhile, Asian stock markets rallied for a second day, buoyed by tentative signs the coronavirus crisis may be levelling off in New York and receding in Europe even though global coronavirus cases kept rising.

Japan's Nikkei rose by 2 per cent and erased most of last week's losses after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised a massive 991 billion dollar economic stimulus package -- equal to 20 per cent of GDP.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside rose almost 1 per cent following a 7 per cent surge on Wall Street overnight.