Indian shares opened at record highs on Tuesday, playing catch-up with overseas gains after a long weekend on news that U.S. drugmaker Moderna Inc's coronavirus vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing infection.
By 0405 GMT, the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index rose as much as 1.2% to hit an all-time peak of 12,934.05 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex gained 1.19% to touch a new high of 44,161.16.
Markets had made modest gains in a special “muhurat” one-hour trading session for Diwali on Saturday, and were closed on Monday.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc became the second drugmaker after Pfizer Inc to announce promising trial data in the development of a Covid-19 vaccine, helping U.S. stock indexes post record closing highs and pushing Asian stocks into record territory.
Indian drugmaker Biological E. Ltd on Monday became the latest company in the country to start human trials of its vaccine candidate.
In Mumbai, the Nifty Bank Index rose 0.99%, while the Nifty energy index was up 0.71%. The Nifty IT index was among the few sectors trading in negative territory, down 0.25%.