Mumbai: Equity indices shot up following their Asian peers on Wednesday after the United States delayed tariffs on some Chinese imports.
At 12 noon, the BSE S&P Sensex was up 346 points at 37,304 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 104 points to 11,030. At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the green except for Nifty pharma which dipped by 2.4 percent.
Nifty media was up by over 2 percent, metals and PSU banks by 1.5 percent each, financial services and private banks by 1.1 percent each, and auto by 0.7 percent.
Among stocks, Zee Entertainment gained 5.2 percent to Rs 344.30 per share while Yes Bank was up by 4.9 percent to Rs 77.20 per share.
Tata Steel was up by 4.6 percent, UPL by 4.2 percent and Vedanta by 4 percent. The other prominent gainers were Bajaj Finserv, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindalco and Tech Mahindra.
But pharma stocks were on slippery ground with Sun Pharma plunging by 5.8 percent and Dr. Reddy was down by 3.2 percent. Wipro, Coal India, Power Grid, Britannia, Tata Motors and ONGC also lost by up to 2 percent.
Meanwhile, Asian indices opened in the green following a rally overnight in US markets where US President Donald Trump delayed the September 1 deadline for 10 percent tariffs on some Chinese imports.
Delaying duties on a range of consumer goods to December 15 sent Wall Street stocks soaring a day earlier. Oil prices rose sharply and energy stocks rallied along with short covering in financials. The trade conflict has disrupted global supply chains and slowed economic growth, dampening sentiment across markets.
The surge in US stocks lifted MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan by 0.9 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index advanced by 0.6 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose by 0.5 percent. South Korea’s KOSPI also advanced by 0.8 percent and Japan’s Nikkei rose by 0.6 percent.