Sensex, Nifty End First Day Of New Year On Firm Note

The Indian stock market posted modest gains on Friday, the first trading session of Calendar year 2021, led by gains in capital goods and telecom sectors.

Some top stocks from FMCG, healthcare, information technology, automobile and power sectors too posted notable gains and contributed to market's uptick.

Optimism about growth amid encouraging developments on Covid-19 vaccine front, and expectations that the government will announce some stimulus measures helped keep investor sentiment positive.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose to a record high of 47,980.36 before settling at 47,868.98 for the day, gaining 117.65 points or 0.25%.

The National Stock Exchange's Nifty, which too posted a new high, rising to 14,049.85, ended with a gain of 36.75 points or 0.26% at 14,018.50.

Adani Ports surged up 4.4%. Tata Consultancy Services and ITC gained 2.4% and 2.3%, respectively. State Bank of India, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Auto gained 1 to 1.5%. Cipla and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, both ended nearly 1% up.

Mahindra & Mahindra ended with a gain of 1.55%, despite reporting a 10% drop in vehicles sales in the month of December 2020.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Ford Motor Company announced that they have mutually and amicably determined that they will not further pursue their Joint Venture plan.

The two companies had executed a business transfer agreement and share subscription agreement in October to form a JV.

ICICI Bank, SBI Life, Hindalco and HDFC Bank ended notably lower.

Punjab National Bank, the top gainer in the Nifty Next 50 index, moved up 5.45%. Bank of Baroda gained nearly 5%. Piramal Enterprises, HDFC AMC, Lupin, Indus Tower and DLF also ended sharply higher.

Shares of Ashok Leyland Limited moved up sharply after the company said its total vehicle sales climbed 14% in December 2020.

Gayatri Projects ended nearly 3% up, riding on an announcement from the company that it has been declared the lowest bidder for a project worth Rs 1,323.52 crore in Uttar Pradesh.

Antony Waste Handling Cell made a strong debut. Despite paring some gains, the stock ended the session about 30% up from its issue price of Rs 315.

The market breadth was pretty strong. Out of 3170 stocks traded on BSE today, 2048 stocks closed higher. 951 stocks declined and 171 stocks ended flat.

On the economic front, India's infrastructure output dropped by 2.6% year-on-year in November 2020, after falling by a revise 0.9% a month earlier.

Another data released by the government showed India's fiscal deficit widened to Rs 10.75 trillion in April-November, 2020, from Rs 8.08 trillion in the corresponding period of the previous year. That was equivalent to about 135% of the government's budget estimate for this financial year, much higher than 114.8% a year earlier.

According to a statement released by the Finance Ministry, the gross GST revenue collected in the month of December 2020 was Rs 1,15,174 crore, the highest since the introduction of Goods and Services Tax from July 1, 2017.

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