Mumbai: Indian equity indices on Thursday (January 2) continued their rally on the second day of the new calendar year with the Sensex closing up 320.62 points or 0.78% at 41626.64. The broader Nifty, however, ended up 99.70 points or 0.82% at 12,282.20. The major gainers on the Nifty were Tata Motors, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel, Grasim Industries and Vedanta, while Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto, BPCL, Cipla and Dr Reddys Labs were major losers.
About 1722 shares advanced, 770 shares declined, while 167 stocks remained unchanged. Except IT, all other indices ended in the green led by the metal, auto, infra, bank, and energy.
During early hours on Thursday, equity benchmark indices were steady with all sectoral indices in the green led by the metal, infrastructure and IT stocks. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 128 points to 41,434 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 35 points at 12,217.
Among stocks, JSW Steel gained by 2 per cent to trade at Rs 273.45 per share while Tata Steel too moved up by 2 per cent, Hindalco by 1.2 per cent and Vedanta by 0.8 per cent. UltraTech Cement ticked up by 1.2 per cent and Grasim by 1.1 per cent. Private lenders IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank added gains of 0.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively while Tata Motors accelerated by 1 per cent. Bajaj Auto, Titan, Coal India, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Zee Entertainment were in losses.
Meanwhile, Asian shares were buoyed by Chinese markets after Beijing eased monetary policy to support slowing growth. Investors also cheered news that the United States and China will sign a trade pact soon after a year of volatile negotiations between the world`s two largest economies.
MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up by 0.35 per cent. In China, the blue-chip CSI300 index was 1.34 per cent higher but Seoul`s Kospi began the year down by 0.85 per cent. Markets in Japan are closed for a national holiday.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that phase one of the trade deal with China will be signed on January 15 at the White House, though uncertainty surrounds details about the agreement.
(With Agency Inputs)
