Shares trade on firm note

Equity indices were trading firm in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 229.14 points or 0.82% at 48,098.64. The Nifty 50 index rallied 87.90 points or 0.63% at 14,106.85. Positive global cues and developments on COVID-19 vaccine cheered investors.

The Sensex hit a record high of 48,168.22 in morning trade and the Nifty scaled an all-time high of 14,118.20 in mid afternoon trade today.

The broader market outperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 1.17%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 1.14%.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1,693 shares rose and 1,094 shares fell. A total of 171 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 506.21 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 69.40 crore in the Indian equity market on 1 January 2021, provisional data showed.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 8,51,23,361 with 18,43,143 deaths. India reported 2,43,953 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,49,649 deaths while 99,46,867 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Meanwhile, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on January 3 reportedly granted restricted emergency use authorisation for the Serum Institute of India (SII)'s 'Covishield' and Bharat Biotech's 'Covaxin' vaccines against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The 'Covishield' vaccine, developed by University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, is being produced in the country by the Serum Institute. Bharat Biotech has developed 'Covaxin' - India's first indigenous vaccine against COVID-19.

Economy:

The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) was at 56.4 in December, a tick higher than November's reading of 56.3 and above the critical 50.0 threshold for the fifth straight month.

Commenting on the latest survey results, Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at IHS Markit said, "The latest PMI results for the Indian manufacturing sector continued to point to an economy on the mend, as a supportive demand environment and firms' efforts to rebuild safety stocks underpinned another sharp rise in production. It's important to emphasise the broad-based nature of the recovery, with marked expansions in both sales and output noted across each of the three monitored sub-sectors."

"Once again, the survey brought the bad news of falling employment. However, the trend for jobs is at least moving in the right direction as the rate of contraction softened to the weakest in the current nine-month period of reduction. The latest available official data pointed to a 3.5% annual increase in manufacturing production during October, when the PMI Output Index had strengthened considerably. In the two months since, growth lost some momentum and we are likely to see the official results showing a similar pattern."

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index gained 1.31% to 9393.70, extending its winning run to fourth consecutive trading session. The auto index has added 3.87% in four trading days.

Ashok Leyland (up 6.16%), Eicher Motors (up 4.23%), Tata Motors (up 2.55%), Amara Raja Batteries (up 2.27%), Bosch (up 2%), MRF (up 2%), Escorts (up 1.77%), Exide Industries (up 1.2%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.15%) and Balkrishna Industries (up 0.96%) advanced.

Numbers to Track:

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee rose to 72.99 compared with its previous closing of 73.115.

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper fell to 5.872% as compared to its previous close of 5.898%.

MCX Gold futures for 5 February 2021 settlement added 1.72% to Rs 51,110.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, fell 0.44% to 89.502.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for March 2021 settlement rose $1.16 to $52.96 a barrel. The contract rose 0.33% to settle at $51.80 in the previous trading session.

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