Equity indices touch new highs, ITC top gainer

Equity benchmark indices touched fresh highs during early hours on Wednesday as encouraging vaccine developments pushed investors towards riskier equities in global markets.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 281 points or 0.62 per cent at 45,890 while the Nifty 50 gained by 74 points or 0.55 per cent at 13,467.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive zone with Nifty PSU bank up by 1.5 per cent, IT by 0.9 per cent, pharma by 0.8 per cent, realty and FMCG by 0.7 per cent each and metal by 0.5 per cent.

Among stocks, ITC was up by 2 per cent at Rs 206.60 per share while UPL gained by 2.2 per cent. The other prominent winners were HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Sun Pharma.

However, those which lost were Maruti Suzuki, UltraTech Cement, HDFC Life, Eicher Motors and Bharti Airtel.

Meanwhile, Asian shares rose to a record high and US stock futures gained as investors tracked positive news on COVID-19 vaccines and ongoing efforts to launch more fiscal stimulus.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 0.51 per cent.

Japan's Nikkei rose by 1.01 per cent to approach a 29-year high and the sentiment got an added boost after Japanese data pointed to a rebound in capital expenditure.

Shares in China rose by 0.15 per cent while South Korean stocks jumped by 1.26 per cent to trade near a record high.

(ANI)

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