FIRST TRADE: Sensex rises over 100 pts; Nifty comes within 4 pts of 19,800

Stock market today: Indian benchmark indices edged higher in early deals on Tuesday amid buying in auto and metal shares. 

Both headline indices rose as much as 0.2 per cent within the first few minutes of trade. The Sensex gained 118.1 points to touch 66,645.8 at the strongest level of the day so far, and the Nifty climbed to as high as 19,795.6, up 41.8 points from its previous close.

At 9:30 am, the Sensex was left with a gain of 61.8 points at 66,589.5 and the Nifty was up 15.6 points at 19,769.4.

As many as 27 stocks in the 50-blue-chip basket traded above the flatline. NTPC, Hindalco, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra and Mahindra & Mahindra were the top gainers, trading with gains of between 0.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent.

On the other hand, PowerGrid, UPL, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC and BPCL were the top laggards in the Nifty basket.

HDFC Bank, ITC, Infosys and NTPC were the top contributors to the gain in the 30-scrip gauge.

Global markets

Equities in other major Asian markets began the day in the green, taking positive cues from Wall Street, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan quoting 0.4 per cent higher at the last count. Japan's Nikkei was up 0.5 per cent.

Overnight on Wall Street, the three main US stock market benchmarks — the Dow Jones, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq — finished 0.2-0.3 per cent higher.

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