Equity benchmark indices traded higher during early hours on Wednesday as investors hoped for elevated spending on infrastructure in the upcoming Union Budget to boost consumer demand and investments.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 308 points to 41,275 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 91 points at 12,147. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive terrain with Nifty metal gaining by 1.4 per cent, auto by 1 per cent and FMCG by 0.8 per cent.
Among stocks, Tata Motors advanced by 4.3 per cent to Rs 183.65 per share. Tata Steel and JSW Steel were up by 2.2 per cent each while Vedanta was up by 1.4 per cent.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries ticked up by 1.4 per cent to Rs 1,492.70 per share. The other prominent gainers were Adani Ports, Britannia, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Infratel, Grasim and Larsen & Toubro.
However, those which lost were Dr Reddy's, Tata Consultancy Services, Eicher Motors and Yes Bank.
Meanwhile, Asian shares erased earlier gains and slipped into negative territory as a spike in new Chinese virus cases sent Hong Kong stocks tumbling and fueled fears about the economic impact of the outbreak.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan skidded by 0.52 per cent. Hong Kong shares fell by 2.8 per cent, led by declines in financial services, real estate and consumer goods companies.
But Japan's Nikkei stock index advanced by 0.4 per cent and South Korea's Kospi also added 0.5 per cent. Markets in China were closed for a holiday.
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