Nifty Opens Above 13K For The First Time; Sensex At Record High Amid Positive Global Cues

On Tuesday, the Indian stock markets opened at record highs with Nifty above 13,000 at opening for the first time, as global markets cheered COVID-19 vaccine progress and the Trump administration's go-ahead for U.S. President-elect, Joe Biden, to begin his transition.

BSE's Sensex was up 274.67 points or 0.62% at 44,351.82, and NSE's Nifty was up 83.50 points or 0.65% at 13,010 on 24 November.

PM Modi is scheduled to review the COVID-19 situation with the Chief Ministers on Tuesday and discuss the rollout of the vaccine programme in the states.

Stocks of diagnostic and healthcare tests firms are expected to be under investors' radar after the Maharashtra government announced on Monday that all air and rail passengers arriving from Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Goa need to carry COVID-19 negative test report before entering the state.

On the global front, U.S. stocks closed higher in a choppy session on Monday as hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine lifted economically sensitive sectors such as energy and industrials, but a pullback in mega-cap shares curbed gains on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump allowed officials to proceed with a transition to President-elect Joe Biden, even as he vowed to persist with efforts to fight the election results. The markets also cheered Biden's choice of Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary as the former Federal Reserve chair is widely expected to focus on fixing the economy rather than the progressive Democratic agenda.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.12%, the S&P 500 gained or 0.56% while the Nasdaq Composite added only 0.22%, underperforming as traders rotated away from big tech names.

Among Asian stock markets, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.27 percent. Japan's Nikkei was 1.8% higher and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 1.11% stronger.

The US dollar index touched its lowest since 1 September before edging 0.214 percent higher.

On Monday, Nifty and Sensex hit record highs of 12,969 and 44,271, respectively in intraday deals helped by gains in IT and energy stocks. The indices pared gains at closing but ended higher than the previous close with Sensex ending 195 points higher at 44,077 and Nifty up 68 points to settle at 12,927.