NEW DELHI: Most of the auto stocks were trading with gains during afternoon trade on Thursday, keeping the Nifty Auto index up.

The Nifty Auto index was trading 0.74 per cent up at 10,869 around 01:30 pm (IST)

Shares of Amara Raja Batteries (up 2.74 per cent), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 2.40 per cent), Motherson Sumi Systems (up 1.94 per cent), Ashok Leyland (up 1.84 per cent), Exide Industries (up 1.32 per cent), Bharat Forge (up 1.09 per cent) and Eicher Motors (up 1.05 per cent) were the top gainers in the Nifty Auto index.

Shares of Apollo Tyres (up 0.84 per cent), Maruti Suzuki India (up 0.70 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (up 0.45 per cent), TVS Motor Company (up 0.42 per cent) and Bajaj Auto (up 0.27 per cent) were also in the green in the index.

However, shares of Tata Motors (down 1.11 per cent), MRF (down 0.35 per cent), Tata Motors (DVR) (down 0.28 per cent) were in the red in the index around that time.

Equity benchmarks were in the positive terrain, backed by buying in bank, financial, auto and IT stocks amid positive global cues.

The NSE Nifty50 index was up 53 points at 10,207, while the BSE Sensex was up 178 points at 33,212.

Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty50 index, 29 were trading in the green, while 21 were in the red.

Bharti Infratel, Mahindra and Mahindra, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank were among the top gainers in the Nifty index.

However, YES Bank, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries and Tata Motors were among the top losers in the Nifty pack of stocks.