Hindalco Emerges as Top Gainer in Indian Stock Markets

Equity benchmark indices were in the green during early hours on Thursday tracking strong global cues after the US Federal Reserve projected a rapid jump in economic growth this year.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 299 points or 0.6 per cent at 50,100 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 95 points or 0.64 per cent to 14,816.

Except for Nifty IT which dipped marginally, all other sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive zone. Nifty metal rose by 1.8 per cent while Nifty PSU bank was up by 1.7 per cent.

Among stocks, Hindalco was up by 3 per cent to Rs 336.20 per share while Tata Steel rose by 2.3 per cent. Bajaj Finance ticked up by 2.7 per cent, IndusInd Bank by 1.9 per cent and ICICI Bank by 1.8 per cent.

The other major gainers were Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, ONGC and Larsen & Toubro.

However, Infosys dropped by 1.6 per cent. HCL Technologies, Dr Reddy's and Britannia also traded with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asian shares rose after the US Federal Reserve committed to maintaining accommodative monetary policy and projected a rapid jump in US economic growth this year as Covid-19 crisis eases.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 0.99 per cent. Japan's Nikkei was up by 0.79 per cent while shares in South Korea and Hong Kong jumped by more than 1 per cent.