Financial, pharma scrips lift equity indices up 1 pc
Dec 24, 2020
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Dec 24 : Equity benchmark indices closed over 1 per cent higher on Thursday as investors put their bets on global economic recovery prospects.
The BSE S&P Sensex wound up 529 points or 1.14 per cent higher at 46,974 while the Nifty 50 zoomed ahead by 148 points or 1.09 per cent to 13,749.
Except for Nifty IT and realty which dipped marginally, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty financial service rising by 1.8 per cent, private bank by 1.6 per cent and pharma by 1.2 per cent.
Among stocks, India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) rose by 13.4 per cent on divestment buzz to Rs 343.85 per share.
Vedanta Ltd jumped by 8.1 per cent following reports that the promoters plan to launch an offer to qualified institutional buyers to buy up to 4.98 per cent stake in the base metals to crude oil producer.
The other major winners were Tata Motors which rose by 3.9 per cent, Sun Pharma by 3.1 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank by 1.9 per cent, ICICI Bank by 1.8 per cent.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries ticked up by 2.5 per cent to close at Rs 1,992.95.
However, IT stocks had a bad day with Infosys down by 1.2 per cent, Wipro by 0.9 per cent, HCL Technologies by 0.6 per cent and Tech Mahindra by 0.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, Asian shares moved up ahead of the Christmas break as Britain and the European Union closed in on a free-trade deal and investors placed bets on global economic recovery prospects.
Tokyo shares ticked up by 0.54 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose by 0.16 per cent.
