Equity indices in the green, FMCG and IT stocks gain

Equity benchmark indices traded with a positive bias during early hours on Thursday as global markets swung higher with central banks offering interest rate cuts to stabilise economic outlook amid spreading coronavirus.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 94 points to 38,503 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 24 points at 11,275.

Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive terrain with Nifty FMCG gaining by 1.6 per cent, IT by 1.04 per cent and pharma by 0.8 per cent.

Among stocks, Hindustan Lever ticked up by 2.9 per cent at Rs 2,240 per share and Britannia by 2 per cent at Rs 3,127.20 apiece.

IT major HCL Technologies was up by 2.5 per cent while Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro gained 1 per cent each. Pharma giants Dr Reddy's and Sun Pharma traded 1.3 per cent and 0.9 per cent higher respectively.

But Yes Bank dipped by 3.7 per cent and ICICI Bank by 1.4 per cent. Bharti Infratel and Coal India dropped by about 3 per cent each.

Meanwhile, Asian shares rallied for a fourth straight session on Thursday as American markets swung sharply higher after the US House of Representatives approved 8.3 billion dollar funding bill to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Central banks too offered some relief for the global economic outlook, leading MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan to add 0.7 per cent in its fourth day of gains.

Japan's Nikkei rose by 0.9 per cent while Shanghai blue chips put on 1.3 per cent.

The upbeat sentiment came despite the coronavirus crisis showing no signs of slowing and mounting deaths globally.