Stock markets across Asia are mostly trading in green after a strong rally on Wall Street in overnight trade. The Japan’s Nikkei 225 is up 0.98%. The China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.04% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading with marginal losses. The US stocks started the week on a positive note and ended the session with solid gains with the benchmark S&P 500 ending the session at an all-time high.

Back home, share markets in India have opened the day on a positive note tracking Asian peers. Investors are breathing a sigh of relief as North Korean fears eased slightly. The BSE Sensex is trading higher by 122 points while the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 33 points. The BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap index opened the day up by 0.5% & 0.7% respectively.

All sectoral indices have opened the day in green with stocks from metal sector and realty sector witnessing maximum buying interest. The rupee is trading at 63.89 to the US$.

Steel stocks opened the day on a mixed note with Tata Steel & Adhunik Metaliks are the most active stocks on BSE. As per an article in a leading financial daily, a deal to merge the European steel operations of Tata Steel and ThyssenKrupp could be struck this month, after Tata removed a significant obstacle by offloading its UK retirement fund.

Tata Steel had earlier announced that Britain’s pensions regulator has approved a regulated apportionment arrangement (RAA) in respect of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS).

Estimated to be worth 15 billion British pounds, the pension fund threatened to drag the company into insolvency, making it less attractive to a potential buyer of its assets.

As part of the RAA, a payment of 550 million pounds from Tata Steel UK has been made to the BSPS and shares in Tata Steel UK, equivalent to a 33% of economic equity stake in the company, issued to the BSPS Trustee.