Equity indices in the green, GAIL jumps by 9 pc

Equity benchmark indices were in the positive zone during early hours on Wednesday amid volatile trade due to uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 524 points at 30,592 while the Nifty 50 ticked up by 153 points at 8,945.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty pharma up by 4.9 per cent, auto by 3.8 per cent, FMCG by 3 per cent and realty by 2.9 per cent.

Among stocks, GAIL jumped by 9 per cent to Rs 92.25 per share while pharma majors Cipla and Sun Pharma gained by 5.9 per cent and 5.3 per cent respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Lever added gains of over 6 per cent. HDFC, HCL Technologies, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti too traded with a positive bias.

However, ITC, Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Airtel were in the red.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks stepped back after two sessions of sharp gains as investors remained cautious about the coronavirus while death tolls were still mounting across the globe.

Though the number of COVID-19 hospitalisations seemed to be levelling off in New York state, deaths across the United States jumped by a record 1,800.

Mainland China's new coronavirus cases also doubled in 24 hours due to infected overseas travellers.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan lost by 0.7 per cent but Japan's Nikkei added 0.4 per cent while Shanghai blue chips lost by 0.6 per cent.