MUMBAI: Equity benchmark indices continued their upward march during early hours on Monday after the Drug Controller General of India approved Covid vaccines produced by AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech for emergency use in the country.
The development expected to deliver economic upturn lifted investor sentiment in line with Asian markets.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 211 points or 0.44 per cent at 48,080 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 75 points or 0.53 per cent to 14,093.
All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green zone with Nifty metal jumping by 2.1 per cent, PSU bank by 1.4 per cent and IT by 1 per cent. Among stocks, ONGC gained by 2.9 per cent to Rs 95.95 per share while GAIL and Bharat Petroleum Corporation were up by 1.9 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively.
Hindalco advanced by 2.9 per cent, Tata Steel by 2.8 per cent and JSW Steel by 1.6 per cent while Tata Motors gained by 2.6 per cent to Rs 191.45 per share. The others which gained were Eicher Motors, Bajaj Finserv and Grasim.
However, Reliance Industries was down by 0.4 per cent after market regulator SEBI imposed penalties on the conglomerate for alleged manipulative trading in the shares of erstwhile Reliance Petroleum during November 2007.
Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints and Titan too traded in the negative terrain. Meanwhile, Asian share markets resumed their ascent as investors pinned their hope on vaccines to eventually help revive the global economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan swung 0.8 per cent higher to hit another all-time peak.
South Korea climbed 2 per cent to a record led by the chip and auto sectors while Chinese blue chips added 0.3 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei shed early gains to fall 0.4 per cent after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga confirmed the government is considering a state of emergency for Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures. (ANI)
