Equities gain on positive global cues, metal and telecom stocks shine

Equity benchmark indices were on an upward swing during early hours on Monday amid global cues and reports of some progress in the US-China trade dispute.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 216 points at 40,576 while the Nifty 50 gained by 58 points to 11,972. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange except for Nifty media were in the green with Nifty metal up by 2.17 per cent and realty by 1.36 per cent.

Tata Steel gained by 2.7 per cent, JSW Steel by 2.5 per cent, Hindalco by 2.1 per cent and Vedanta by 1.6 per cent.

Even telecom majors witnessed handsome gains with Bharti Airtel up by 4 per cent, Bharti Infratel by 2.8 per cent and Vodafone Idea by 1.5 per cent.

Realty major DLF Ltd added gains of 2.9 per cent at Rs 222.80 per share while Oberoi Realty edged higher by 0.8 per cent. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries traded 1.1 per cent higher at Rs 1,563.65 per share.

However, those which lost were Zee Entertainment, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, HCL Technologies, Wipro and Yes Bank.

Meanwhile, Asian shares made guarded gains as investors hoped for some progress in the US-China trade dispute.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan bounced by 0.8 per cent while Japan's Nikkei firmed by 0.9 per cent while Shanghai blue chips rose by 0.4 per cent.