Equity benchmark indices were higher during early hours on Tuesday after tracking gains in Asian markets as investors prepared for an expected US interest rate cut this week.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up 173 points at 37,859 while the Nifty 50 gained 44 points to 11,233. At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the positive zone with Nifty pharma up by 1.76 per cent.
Among stocks, Bharti Airtel gained 3.6 per cent to Rs 346.55 per share. Pharma major Sun Pharma and Cipla showed gains of over 1.2 per cent while ICICI Bank was up 1.7 per cent.
The other prominent gainers were JSW Steel, Larsen and Toubro, Bajaj Finserv, Eicher Motors and Grasim.
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However, Coffee Day Enterprises shed 20 per cent to trade at Rs 154.05 per share after its founder V G Siddhartha was reported missing since Monday night. Hero MotoCorp, Indian Oil, Bharti Infratel and Kotak Mahindra Bank also lost marginally.
Meanwhile, Asian indices opened in the green as equity investors prepared for an expected US interest rate cut this week. Japanese Nikkei was up 0.7 per cent, showing little reaction after the Bank of Japan left monetary policy unchanged as expected.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.35 per cent while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7 per cent.