Indian equity gauges volatile, pharma and FMCG scrips gain

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices swung between gains and losses during early hours on Friday with pharma and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks showing gains.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 86 points or 0.18 per cent at 48,777 while the Nifty 50 crawled up by 14 points or 0.1 per cent to 14,711. Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty PSU bank gaining by 1.7 per cent and pharma by 0.8 per cent.

But Nifty IT and realty slipped by 0.9 per cent each and metal by 1.5 per cent.

Among stocks, Asian Paints jumped by 10 per cent to Rs 2,823.75 per share. FMCG majors were in the positive zone with ITC up by 1.7 per cent, Nestle India by 0.8 per cent and Hindustan Unilever by 0.7 per cent.

Pharma majors Cipla and Dr Reddy's advanced by 1.8 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively. However, those which lost were Grasim, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and Maruti Suzuki.

Meanwhile, Japanese shares led a rebound in Asian markets, building on the lead from investors on Wall Street snapping up stocks that would benefit most from an economic recovery.

The Nikkei moved up by 1.8 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's Kospi surged by 0.9 per cent each.