Sensex, Nifty volatile after early gains, IT and FMCG stocks up

Equity benchmark indices erased early gains in a choppy trade during early hours on Tuesday after the US Federal Reserve announced unprecedented measures to support the economy reeling from coronavirus pandemic.

Investors said other central banks can be expected to follow suit with bold measures to ease the strained financial and credit markets.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was down by 40 points to 25,941 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 20 points to 7,591.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty IT ticking up by 4.1 per cent, pharma by 2.8 per cent, and FMCG by 1.5 per cent. But Nifty private bank was down by 1.4 per cent and realty by 1.3 per cent.

Among stocks, IT major Infosys was the top gainer, moving up 7.9 per cent to Rs 568.40 per share. Tech Mahindra edged up by 3.8 per cent, HCL Technologies by 3.5 per cent and Wipro by 3.4 per cent.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was up by 3.1 per cent to Rs 911.65 while FMCG majors Hindustan Lever and Britannia gained by 6.1 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively.

The other prominent gainers were Adani Ports, Cipla and Sun Pharma.

However, IndusInd Bank plunged by nearly 15 per cent to Rs 286 per share. Titan, Bharti Infratel, Hero MotoCorp and Bharat Petroleum Corporation traded with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks rallied as the US Federal Reserve's pledge to spend whatever it took to stabilise the financial system eased debt market pressures.

The world's biggest central bank signalled it will do practically anything -- extending loans to big and small businesses and purchasing unlimited amounts of government debt -- to help the US economy with coronavirus sending large swaths of the globe into shutdown mode.

Japan's Nikkei moved up by 4.9 per cent while MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan added 1.2 per cent.