By Administrator _India
Equity benchmarks made a winning start to the week on Monday as positive results from another Covid-19 vaccine candidate bolstered investor confidence globally.
After touching a record intra-day high of 44,271.15, Sensex ended 194.90 points or 0.44 per cent higher at 44,077.15. Similarly, the broader Nifty rose 67.40 points or 0.52 per cent to close at 12,926.45.
ONGC was the top performer on the Sensex chart, surging 6.84 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries, HCL, and TCS.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries climbed 2.72 per cent, accounting for most of the Sensex’s gains.
On the other hand, the Nifty Financial Services index was down 1.07 per cent, but its constituents saw a good bit of action. Among gainers, Bajaj Holdings was up 7.8 per cent, while Shriram Transport, Chola Investment, M&M Finance and Bajaj Finserv were among top gainers—up 1.8 – 4.2 per cent. The losers were HDFC (down 3.5 per cent), followed by ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI Life and SBI, which were down 1.7 – 2.5 per cent.
HDFC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, and M&M were among the main laggards, slumping up to 3.55 per cent.
Global equities were on the upswing after Oxford University and AstraZeneca announced that their Covid-19 vaccine candidate was found to be around 90 per cent effective in preventing the disease.
This is the third major vaccine trial to have reported encouraging results, after Moderna and Pfizer came out with positive Phase 3 data.