Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Aug 11 (ANI): Equity benchmark indices surged for the third consecutive session during early hours on Tuesday with metal and financial stocks leading the rally.

At 10:15 am, the BSE SP Sensex was up by 291 points or 0.76 per cent at 38,473 while the Nifty 50 gained by 77 points or 0.68 per cent at 11,347.

Except for Nifty pharma which slipped marginally, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty metal gaining by 2.9 per cent, private bank by 1 per cent and financial service by 0.9 per cent.

Among stocks, Tata Steel moved up by 3.8 per cent to Rs 426 per share while Hindalco gained by 3.6 per cent and JSW Steel by 3.2 per cent.

The other prominent winners were HDFC, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Wipro, Asian Paints and ITC.

However, Titan lost by 3.9 per cent a day after the jewellery-to-eyewear maker reported a net standalone loss of Rs 270 crore for the quarter ended June. It had reported a profit of Rs 371 crore in the year-ago period.

The others which lost were Dr Reddy's, Cipla, Sun Pharma, UPL, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors.

Meanwhile, Asian stock markets rose as investors awaited a meeting between the top US and Chinese trade officials later this week to review the first six months of phase one trade deal.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up by 1 per cent. Japan's Nikkei returned from a holiday with a 1.7 per cent gain and the Hang Seng bounced by 2.2 per cent. (ANI)