Indian markets hit record highs on Monday morning to start the first trading week of the new year as the country’s drug regulator approved two coronavirus vaccines for emergency use, pushing investor sentiment.
At 9.45 am, the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.46% to 48,091.27, while the NSE Nifty 50 index jumped 0.57% to 14,098.40. In the early trade, all the sectoral indices traded in the green, led by gains in banking, financial services, automobile and IT shares. This was the first time that the Sensex hit the 48,000-mark.
On Monday evening, the Sensex closed at 48,176.80 – 307.82 points (or 0.64%) higher than the previous closing, and the Nifty 50 ended the day at 14,132.90 – 114.40 points (or 0.82%) higher.
In early trade, Tata Motors was the biggest percentage gainer on the Nifty 50, rising 2.57% after the company on Friday reported a 21% rise in December domestic sales. Gas Authority of India Limited, Tata Steel, Eicher Motors and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, were trading between 1.82% and 3.11% higher and among the other top gainers in the Nifty basket of 50 shares.
On the other hand, Reliance Industries, Hero MotoCorp and Asian Paints were the only ones to trade in the red.
At the end of the trading day, top gainers on the Sensex included ONGC, Tata Consultancy Services Limited, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra and Infosys. On the other hand, Kotak Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank and Power Grid Corporation were among the ones to incur losses.
Meanwhile, on the Nifty 50, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Eicher Motors, ONGC and TCS made the most gains. However, Hero Motocorp, Kotak Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Adani Ports, and Asian Paints suffered losses at the end of the day.
The Drugs Controller General of India on Sunday approved coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and the other one by Bharat Biotech. India, which has the second-highest number of coronavirus infections in the world after the United States, is expected to start its massive immunisation programme within weeks now.
At 3.39 pm, the Indian rupee was trading at Rs 73.01 or 0.13% lower than the previous close.
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