Mumbai: As equity benchmark indices on Wednesday (January 1, 2020) started calendar 2020 on a firm note with most sectoral indices in the green, the Sensex closed 52.28 points higher or 0.13 percent at 41306.02, while the Nifty ended adding 21.20 points at 12189.70. The top gainers were Power Grid, NTPC, and Infosys while Titan Company, IndusInd Bank and ONGC remained the top laggards.
About 1337 shares advanced, 1062 shares declined, while 192 shares remained unchanged.
During early hours on Wednesday, equity benchmark indices started on a firm note with most sectoral indices in the green. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 79 points to 41,333 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 20 points at 12,189. Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive zone with Nifty metal up by 0.52 per cent, IT by 0.39 per cent and realty by 0.2 per cent.
Among stocks, JSW Steel gained by 1.15 per cent to trade at Rs 273.15 per share while Vedanta moved up by 0.98 per cent and Tata Steel by 0.73 per cent. Adani Ports added gains of 1.97 per cent and engineering major Larsen & Toubro ticked up by 1.5 per cent. The other prominent gainers were index heavyweight Reliance Industries, Bharti Infratel, Wipro and Indian Oil Corporation. However, among the losers were IndusInd Bank, Eicher Motors, Coal India, ONGC and Nestle India.
Notably, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced a Rs 102 lakh crore infrastructure project pipeline for the next five years at a time when the nation is facing an economic slowdown. The move is expected to help the country nearly double the size of GDP to five trillion dollars by 2025.
(With Agency Inputs)
