Equity benchmark indices traded higher for the fourth consecutive opening session on Tuesday due to supportive global cues and gains in Asian markets.

The gains were driven by positive news flows surrounding the COVID treatment and vaccine besides statements from both China and the United States that top-level trade representatives held constructive talks over the future of phase one trade deal.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 118 points or 0.3% at 38,917 while the Nifty 50 gained by 29 points or 0.26% at 11,496.

Except for Nifty IT and FMCG, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive terrain with Nifty PSU bank gaining by 1.9%, financial service by 0.9%, and auto by 1%.

Among stocks, IndusInd Bank climbed up by 2.8% to Rs 544.15 per share while ICICI Bank and Axis Bank advanced by 1.5% and 1.2% respectively.

State Bank of India too was up by 2.2%.Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv ticked up by 1.7% and 1.3% respectively while Eicher Motors continued its upward march by gaining 2.6% to Rs 2,233.80 per share.

Tata Motors, Maruti and Mahindra & Mahindra too traded with a positive bias.

However, those which lost were Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Nestle India and JSW Steel.

Meanwhile, Asia`s stock markets were mostly higher as investors cheered signs of progress in US-China trade negotiations and following a fresh Wall Street rally.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 0.32% and Japan`s Nikkei traded 1.5% higher.

But the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong slipped by 0.27% while the Shanghai Composite was 0.15% firmer.