BENGALURU, Jan 1 (Reuters) – Indian stocks opened higher in the first trading session of the new year, a day after the Nifty 50 index closed 2020 with gains of almost 15%, as a jump in shares of IT services raised the main indexes.
The top-line NSE Nifty 50 Index rose 0.24% to 14,015.90 on Friday and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex Index was up 0.23% to 47,860.77 at 0349 GMT.
The Nifty gained 14.9% in 2020, its best annual performance since 2017, while the Sensex gained 15.75%. Both indices recovered more than 86% from a virus-triggered collapse in March, driven by liquidity support measures from global central banks and progress on COVID-19 vaccines.
Investors await the meeting of India’s drug regulator on Friday to consider approval of the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford for emergency use. individual stocks, Mahindra and Mahindra were up 1.8%. American automaker Ford Motor (NYSE 🙂 FN and Mahindra canceled their automotive joint venture due to challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Aviation, the parent company of India’s largest airline IndiGo, fell 1.2%. On Thursday, the company revealed https: // that some of IndiGo’s servers were hacked earlier this month.
Most Asian markets and the US market are closed for the New Years holidays.
