Equities trade higher on global cues, PSU banks rally

Equity benchmark indices were buoyant during early hours on Friday in line with Asian markets as investors hoped that the US-China trade deal will soon be signed.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 195 points to 41,359 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 54 points at 12,181.

Apart from Nifty IT and metal, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green. Nifty PSU bank jumped by 2.62 per cent. Nifty financial service gained by half per cent while auto ticked up by 0.6 per cent.

Among stocks, State Bank of India rose by 2.12 per cent to Rs 336.85 per share while Yes Bank and Axis Bank moved up by 1.3 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries jumped by 1.2 per cent to Rs 1,533.70 per share.

The other prominent gainers were Zee Entertainment, Power Grid Corporation, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports and UPL.

However, JSW Steel and Tata Steel traded with marginal losses like IT majors Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and HCL Technologies. NTPC, Hindustan Lever and Bajaj Auto too were in the negative terrain.

Meanwhile, Asian shares jumped to an 18-month high as investor optimism was boosted by hopes that the US-China trade deal will soon be signed. Beijing said it is in close contact with Washington about an initial trade agreement.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up by 0.55 per cent while Japan`s Nikkei lay flat. Japan has approved a record budget for the coming fiscal year in a bid to shore up growth.

Chinese shares were upbeat after Beijing laid out additional plans to bolster its economy, including infrastructure investments, with blue-chip CSI300 adding 0.56 per cent.