Sensex gains almost 300 points to reach above 52100-mark, Nifty tests 15660

MUMBAI: Equity benchmark indices gained nearly half a per cent during early hours on Thursday with investors opting for realty and financial stocks. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 299 points or 0.58 per cent at 52,148 while the Nifty 50 gained by 86 points or 0.56 per cent to 15,663.

Except for Nifty auto which dipped by 0.2 per cent, all other sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive terrain with Nifty realty moving up by 2 per cent, private bank by 0.5 per cent and FMCG by 0.3 per cent.

Among stocks, Titan spurted by 4.5 per cent to Rs 1,657.90 per share while index heavyweight Reliance Industries added 1.2 per cent to Rs 2,228.05 on a strong growth outlook. DLF and Godrej Properties were up by 2.3 per cent each while Kotak Mahindra Bank advanced 1.7 per cent, HDFC Bank by 0.5 per cent, HDFC Life by 0.8 per cent and HDFC by 1.3 per cent.

However, those which lost were Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and Hindustan Unilever. Meanwhile, Asian shares were a touch below a recent three-month top as investors weighed inflation concerns ahead of key US economic data.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3 per cent. Japan's Nikkei added 0.4 per cent.