Equity indices in positive zone, auto and realty stocks look up

Equity benchmark indices traded higher during early hours on Wednesday following gains in global markets.

Meanwhile, investors awaited the outcome of Reserve Bank of India's six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meet to see if it will cut key interest rates again a day later after keeping status quo in the previous policy.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 183 points to 40,972 while the Nifty 50 ticked up by 52 points at 12,032. Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty realty up by 1.7 per cent and auto by nearly 1 per cent.

Among stocks, Tata Motors accelerated by 4.4 per cent at Rs 173.05 per share while Mahindra and Mahindra was up by 1.8 per cent and Bajaj Auto by 1.6 per cent.

Reliance Industries continued its Tuesday's pace and was up by 1.3 per cent at Rs 1,444.55 per share.

The other prominent gainers were UPL, Bharti Infratel, HCL Technologies and Britannia.

However, Zee Entertainment fell by 3.2 per cent, Adani Ports by 1.8 per cent, ITC by 1.4 per cent and Hero MotoCorp by 1.3 per cent. IT majors Infosys and Wipro were down by 1.2 per cent and 1 per cent respectively along with Yes Bank which dipped by 0.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks steadied on hopes of additional Chinese stimulus to lessen the economic impact of a coronavirus outbreak. The illness continues to spread and the death toll neared 500.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up by 0.3 per cent while Japan's Nikkei stock index rose by 1.19 per cent. Shares in China rose by 0.5 per cent while stocks in Hong Kong climbed by 0.42 per cent in early trading.