Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices were flat during early hours on Monday (December 9) with auto and metal stocks in focus.
 
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 21 points to 40,466 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 11 points at 11,933. Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty FMCG, IT and realty in the negative zone but Nifty metal and auto gained by 0.94% each.

Among stocks, Hindalco was up by 2% at Rs 201.90 per share while Vendanta added gains of 1.3%. Tata Steel traded higher by 1.2% and JSW Steel by 0.9%.
 
Auto major Maruti Suzuki too traded 2% higher, Tata Motors by 1.7%, Eicher Motors by 0.9% and Mahindra & Mahindra by 0.7%. The other prominent gainers were Zee Entertainment and Yes Bank.
 
However, those which lost included HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Hindustan Lever, Bharti Infratel and pharma major Cipla.
 
Meanwhile, Asian stocks edged up, catching some of Wall Street's momentum after surprisingly strong US jobs data.
 
Japan's benchmark Nikkei added 0.4% while MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.3% and South Korea's Kospi was up 0.3%. China's Shanghai Composite stood flat and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.2%.
 
Wall Street rose to near-record highs on Friday on the strong jobs data and some signs of optimism about the US-China trade talks.