Indian Shares Likely To Open Higher

Indian shares are likely to start Calendar year 2021 on a firm note, tracking cues from Wall Street, where stocks moved higher overnight.

Optimism about economic recovery, the rollout of coronavirus vaccines and expectations of further stimulus measures are likely to lift the market to fresh record hikes.

The focus will be on the outcome of the meeting of the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation that will review applications by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech (BB) for emergency use authorisation of their vaccines. Both SII had BB are testing the Covid-19 vaccines in ongoing phases-3 trials in India.

Automobile and cement stocks are likely to see some action, tracking sales and shipments data from automobile and cement manufacturers, respectively.

The Indian stock market ended the final trading session of calendar year 2020 on a flat note, after swinging between gains and losses right through the day, as investors refrained from making significant moves due to a lack of triggers.

The benchmark BSE Sensex, which hit a fresh all-time intraday high of 47,896.97, ended Thursday's session with a small gain of 5.11 points or 0.01% at 47,751.33, a new record. The National Stock Exchange's Nifty ended with a slender loss of 0.20 points at 13,981.75, after scaling a new high at 14,024.85.

The Sensex and the Nifty gained about 16% and 15%, respectively, in Calendar year 2020.

On Wall Street, the major averages all closed in positive territory. The Nasdaq posted a modest gain of 0.1%, while the Dow and the S&P 500 moved up 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively.

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