Mumbai,Dec 07:
The NSE Nifty 50 index ended up 0.73% at 13,355.75, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex advanced 0.77% to 45,426.97. Both indexes have registered five consecutive weeks of gains amid news of progress in coronavirus vaccines.
Market breadth was in favour of the bulls as out of 3,167 companies traded on the BSE, 2,035 advanced and 937 declined while 195 stocks remained unchanged.
In commodities, oil prices slipped from multi-month highs as a continued surge in coronavirus cases globally forced a series of renewed lockdowns, including strict new measures in Southern California in the United States, the world’s top oil consumer.
In the latest development on the domestic front, Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest producer of vaccines by volume and India’s main hope for large-scale supplies, said it had made the first formal application for emergency use approval for AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
Daily virus cases in the world’s second most populous country have stayed below 50,000 for a month, despite a busy festival season.
Among consumer goods stocks, Hindustan Unilever jumped 3.3%, while ITC rose 2.5%. Mortgage lender HDFC Ltd was up 2.6%.
ICICI Bank Ltd and smaller rival Bandhan Bank ltd climbed 1.7% and 4.5%, respectively, after Goldman Sachs added them to its “conviction list” of top stock picks and raised their target prices.
Goldman also upgraded the rating and target price on IndusInd Bank Ltd, sending its shares up 2.4%.
ONGC shares climbed 1.9% after the company said on Friday its overseas arm had made a "significant strike of oil" in its block in Colombia. (bityl.co/4ji9)
Capping the gains, HDFC Bank Ltd dropped 1% to its lowest close since mid-November. Credit ratings agency Moody’s said the bank’s multiple digital outages, which prompted the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday to curb its digital and credit card operations, were credit negative.
Smaller rival Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd slid 1.4% after Goldman downgraded the stock to “neutral” from “buy”.
European shares slipped on Monday as rising tension between the United States and China sapped some appetite for risky assets, while Britain-based exporters outperformed as uncertainty over a Brexit trade deal battered the pound.
Germany’s trade-sensitive DAX index and the pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.1 per cent.