Nifty holds 17,200 mark; breadth remains positive

The benchmarks equity indices were trading near the day's high in afternoon trade. The Nifty was trading above the 17,200 mark. IT and FMCG shares were in demand while PSU banks, realty and oil & gas shares declined.

At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 157.47 points or 0.27% to 57,963.96. The Nifty 50 index added 19.25 points or 0.11% to 17,232.85.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.19% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.42%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1900 shares rose and 1386 shares fell. A total of 114 shares were unchanged.

F&O contracts for the month of December will expire today, 30 December 2021.

HCL technologies (up 2.16%), Dr Reddy's Labs (up 1.71%), NTPC (up 1.58%), Tech Mahindra (up 1.56%) and Wipro (up 1.44%) were major index gainers.

Bajaj Auto (down 1.77%), Tata Motors (down 1.34%), Coal India (down 1.19%) and Indian Oil Corp (down 1.17%) were major index losers.

BPCL was down 1.13%. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) bought 4,38,02,790 equity shares or 2.01% stake of BPCL between 11 June 2018 to 28 December 2021. Post transaction, LIC has increased its stake in BPCL to 7.03% from 5.011% earlier.

Rama Steel Tubes hit an upper circuit of 10% at Rs 311.15 after the company procured orders worth Rs 4.33 crore from Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation (UPPCL). This order is mainly for supplying 2500 electrical poles amounting to 580 MT.

Covid Update:

India reported 13,154 new cases in the last 24 hours. The country's active caseload currently stands at 82,402. Active cases account for less than 1% of total cases, currently at 0.24%. Recovery rate currently stands at 98.38%. 7,486 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours, which increases total recoveries to 3,42,58,778.

With the administration of 63,91,282 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 143.83 crore as per provisional reports till 7:00 IST today.

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