E-Paper
Sensex jumps 300 points to 48,250 in early trade, Nifty above 14,400
The rally in both indices Sensex and Nifty comes a day after the government announced the move to open vaccination for all citizens above the age of 18 years from May 1.
Domestic equity indices were trading in the green with BSE Sensex soaring 300 points and the broader Nifty jumping 100 points on Tuesday, a day after closing lower. At 10:27am, the 30-share index Sensex was up 309.65 points or 0.65% at 48,259.07 and the 50-share benchmark Nifty was trading 98 points or 0.68% higher at 14,457.45. On the Sensex, barring three IT stocks -- HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra and TCS -- all shares were trading in the green.
The rally in both indices comes a day after the government announced the move to open Covid-19 vaccination for all citizens above the age of 18 years from May 1. The Union health ministry also announced that in the third phase of immunisation, covering all adults, vaccine manufacturers would supply 50% of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to the government and would be free to supply the remaining 50% doses to state governments and in the open market.
In the previous session on Monday, the markets closed on a lower note with Sensex plunging 883 points or 1.81% to 47,949 and the Nifty 50 dipping by 258 points or 1.77 % to 14,359.
According to reports, the government has also sanctioned ₹4500 crore supply credit to Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers—Serum Institute of India ( ₹3000 crore) and Bharat Biotech ( ₹1500 crore). “The health ministry will work company-specific details and provide them advance money so that they ramp up their manufacturing capacities and continue vaccine supplies without interruption,” a finance ministry official familiar with the development said. The government will also waive its 10% customs duty on imported Covid-19 vaccines, according to a senior government official quoted by news agency Reuters.
"This is positive from the market perspective. The market is likely to ignore the stress in the healthcare system and the pains from the second wave," VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, told news agency PTI.
India is currently witnessing the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The country’s infection tally has surged past 15.3 million as a one-day death toll of 1761, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic last year, was recorded on Tuesday.
