Nifty Closes At New Record High Of 12,631 Points, Banks Surge

It was another day of stunning rally across the global markets and India followed with record closings for the Sensex and the Nifty. This was the second day the markets closed at new record highs. The Nifty ended the day higher by 170 points higher at 12,631 points.

The Indian markets have had a spectacular rally since the beginning of last week, when it became clear that Joe Biden would become the next President of the United States. Today's rally was fuelled by Pfizer Inc announcing that its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90 percent effective in Phase 3 trials. Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE said they expect to seek US emergency use authorization later this month.

Banking and finance stocks were once again at the heart of the rally with the Bank Nifty spurting almost 4 per cent. Among the banking stocks that gained ground were IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India and HDFC Bank.

The Bank Nifty gained for the seventh straight trading session. Shares in GAIL gained ground after the company reported a net profit of Rs 1,068.16 crore for the quarter ended September, down 8.5 per cent from Rs 1,167.58 crore a year ago.

Pharma and IT stocks were weak in trade with Cipla leading the losers from the Nifty space. Other notable losers were Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Nestle and Infosys.

Santosh Kumar Singh, Head of Research, Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company said: "Markets are at all-time high, however they are driven by three news flows a) US elections uncertainty over b) COVID Vaccine may be much closer and c) India recovery has been faster. Hence, the markets may not see big correction from here and in the medium to long term we see markets doing well. In my view financials is still an area where good upside may be left with all the banks reporting better credit quality."