The S&P BSE Sensex index 361.82 points – or 0.85 per cent – higher at 42,959.25.Domestic stock markets soared to new record highs on Tuesday as investors applauded progress within the development of a coronavirus vaccine which lifted confidence during a world economic recovery.
The S&P BSE Sensex index391.4 points – or 0.92 per cent – higher at42,988.83, and therefore the broader NSE Nifty 50 benchmark began the day at12,566.75, up 105.7 points. Those marked the very best intraday levels ever for both indices, led by gains in banking and financial servicesshares.
At 11:12 am, the Sensex traded 480.70 points – or 1.13 per cent – higher at 43,078.13 while the Nifty was up 124.05 points – or 1.00 per cent – at 12,585.10.
HDFC, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors and ONGC, trading between 2.19 per cent and a couple of .52 per cent higher, rose the foremost among 31 gainers within the Nifty basket of fifty shares.
HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC were the most important contributors to the gain in Sensex.
US-based drug maker Pfizer said its COVID-19 vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech SE, was quite 90 per cent effective in preventing infection, marking the primary successful results from a large-scale clinical test . The vaccine news sparked renewed optimism in equities round the world but oil prices slipped in Asian trade after posting the most important one-day percentage gain in five months.
“The vaccine news may be a big relief for markets and investors hope that the economic recovery will happen sooner,” said Samrat Dasgupta, chief military officer at Esquire Capital Investment Advisors.
Investors hoped that the vaccine would help the travel and hospitality sectors return to normalcy after facing restrictions due to the coronavirus lockdowns, he added.
Investors also turned their focus to elections in Bihar, where the ruling NDA surged before the opposition alliance of Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and Left parties.Airline, travel and tourism stocks across Asia were beneficiaries of the optimism prompted by the vaccine announcement.
