Equities trading firm during early hours on Thursday in line with Asian peers after Wall Street's overnight rally with investors hoping that coronavirus pandemic in the United States was nearing its peak. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 785 points or 2.62 per cent at 30,679 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 245 points or 2.8 per cent at 8,993.
All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty pharma up by 5.6 per cent, auto by 4.8 per cent, metal by 4.1 per cent and private bank by 3.7 per cent. Among stocks, Cipla jumped by 14 per cent to Rs 584.50 per share after it got final approval for a key abbreviated new drug application from the US Food and Drug Administration. Tata Motors was up by 9.9 per cent to Rs 74.35 per share while metal majors JSW Steel and Vedanta gained by 8 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively.
The other prominent winners were Hero MotoCorp, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC and GAIL. However, Hindustan Lever was down by 1.6 per cent. Meanwhile, Asian shares rose on hopes the COVID-19 pandemic is nearing a peak and that governments will roll out more stimulus measures. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up by 0.6 per cent following a strong Wall Street close. Shares in China rose by 0.54 per cent and Hong Kong was up half a per cent.
But Japan's Nikkei slipped by 0.5 per cent in early deals. US stock markets jumped on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said Americans might be getting to the top of the curve in relation to the outbreak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 gained by 3.4 per cent each and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 2.58 per cent.
( With inputs from ANI )