Sensex Surges As Gilead’s Drug Raises Hopes For Covid-19 Treatment

Global markets continued their rally spurred on Thursday by hopes of a new treatment for Covid-19 infections. Pharma major, Gilead said that early results of coronavirus drug trial show improvement with shorter remdesivir treatment. Remdesivir is a product of Gilead Sciences.

Asian markets surged in trade with the Japanese Nikkei up almost 3 per cent, while overnight US Markets ended almost 2 per cent higher.

The Sensex was trading with gains of 659 points, while the Nifty was up 187 points in trade. Tech stocks were leading today's rally with Infosys higher by as much as 4 per cent and TCS was up 2.5 per cent. Banking stocks continued their sharp rebound for the 5th straight day with smaller banks like Bandhan Bank jumping almost 5 per cent in trade.

Tata Motors led gainers from the Nifty and was up 9 per cent, while Vedanta, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance were the other gainers in trade.

Interestingly, there were no losers from the Nifty today. Axis Bank, which had fallen sharply on Wednesday, following reported losses, managed to gain ground. Reliance Industries was trading 1 per cent higher, ahead of its results to be declared later today.

Meanwhile, most Asian markets were trading higher, led by the Japanese Nikkei.