Opening Bell: Equities begin New Year with positive ring

Equity benchmark indices began the first trading session of year 2021 on a positive note with the possibility of touching new height.

The stocks have surged since November on record inflows from foreign institutional investors, progress on COVID-19 vaccines globally and signs of a nascent economic recovery in the country.

At 10:15 am, the BSE SandP Sensex was up by 148 points or 0.31 per cent at 47,899 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 39 points or 0.28 per cent to 14,020.

Except for Nifty pharma, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green zone with Nifty PSU bank moving up by 1.6 per cent, auto and IT by 0.5 per cent, and FMCG by 0.3 per cent.

Among stocks, Mahindra and Mahindra gained by 2.1 per cent to Rs 736.05 per share while Tata Motors was up by 0.6 per cent to Rs 184.95.