NEW DELHI: Shares of Tata Motors, Mahindra Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Motherson Sumi Systems and Maruti Suzuki were trading with gains in early trade on Tuesday amid reports that China was considering cutting vehicle sales tax to boost demand. China is considering a tax cut to revive its flagging automotive market, lending support to a key industry that’s been damaged by an ongoing trade war with the US, Bloomberg reported.

The move is expected to bolster the automobile market which has taken a hit as the consumer spending declined in the wake of a trade war between world's two largest economies- the US and China. Shares of Motherson Sumi Systems (up 5.97 per cent), Tata Motors (up 1.91 per cent), Mahindra Mahindra (up 1.88 per cent) and Balkrishna Industries (up 1.80 per cent) witnessed decent traction. Bharat Forge (up 1.36 per cent), Exide Industries (up 0.93 per cent), Apollo Tyres (up 0.70 per cent), Bajaj Auto (up 0.68 per cent) and Ashok Leyland (up 0.48 per cent), too, were in the green. The BSE Auto index was trading 0.8 per cent up at 19784.67 around 09:35 am.

Benchmark NSE Nifty50 index was down 21 points at 10,230, while the BSE Sensex was 70 points down at 33,997.

Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty index, 23 were trading in the green, while 27 were in the red.

In the Sensex basket of stocks, 19 stocks were declining and 12 were advancing.

IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, Coal India and Tata Steel were among the top losers in the Sensex kitty.

YES Bank, State Bank of India, along with auto heavyweights, were among the top gainers in the Sensex index at that time.