Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Dec 13 (ANI): Equity benchmark indices ruled higher during early hours on Friday following reports that the United States and China have reached an agreement over the terms of a phase one trade deal.

At 10:15 am, the BSE SP Sensex was up by 315 points to 40,897 while the Nifty 50 gained 78 points at 12,050. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange except for Nifty pharma were in the positive zone with Nifty metal up by 2.4 per cent, PSU bank by 1.8 per cent and auto by 1.4 per cent.

Among stocks, Vedanta moved up by 3.2 per cent at Rs 148.65 per share while Tata Steel edged higher by 3 per cent, JSW Steel by 2.8 per cent and Hindalco by 2.5 per cent.

Automaker Tata Motors jumped 4.79 per cent at Rs 181.65 per cent. Private lenders Yes Bank and Axis Bank added gains of 3.3 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.

However, Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Bharti Infratel, Britannia and Kotak Mahindra Bank showed losses.

Meanwhile, Asian markets jumped on news regarding the US-China trade deal and a likely major election win by Britain's Conservative Party.

Reports said the United States and China have reached an agreement over the terms of a phase one trade deal. The new tariffs to take force on December 15 onwards have been set aside, the reports said.

Japan's Nikkei spurted by 2.26 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose by 1.61 per cent and South Korea's Kospi index by lifted up by 1.34 per cent as the day progressed.

(ANI)