Sensex hits another record high of 45,897 points amid COVID-19 vaccine progress

With India on the path to approving coronavirus vaccines for the public, raising bets of an economic recovery, key equity indices opened on a positive note on Wednesday with the BSE Sensex hitting another record high of 45,897.23 points.

Around 9.16 a.m., Sensex was trading at 45,846.68, higher by 238.17 points or 0.52 per cent from its previous close of 45,608.51 points.

It opened at 45,891.04 and has touched an intra-day low of 45,792.01 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 13,463.35, up 70.40 points or 0.53 per cent from its previous close.

Oil and gas, metal, energy and IT stocks led the across-the-board buying on Wednesday morning. The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC, ITC and TCS, while the only losers so far were Ultratech Cement and Maruti Suzuki India.

The recent bull-run has been on the back of a similar trend in the global markets amid optimism on the vaccine front for COVID-19. On Tuesday, the Centre said that it may approve some coronavirus vaccines over the next few weeks and an estimated 30 crore people would be inoculated in the first tranche.

An expert committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) will meet on Wednesday to review applications for the approval of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Applications of drug manufacturing companies - Pfizer, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech seeking for emergency use authorisation for their Covid-19 vaccine candidates are pending with the committee.

The decision was taken late on Monday evening after the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech became the third pharmaceutical firm to apply to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use authorisation for its indigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin.

Britain on Tuesday started a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Adding to market optimism, Johnson & Johnson said it could obtain late-stage trial results for a single-dose vaccine in January, earlier than expected.