Shares opened higher on the first trading session of the new year, a day after the Nifty50 index ended 2020 with gains of nearly 15 per cent, as a jump in IT services stocks lifted the main indexes.
The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.24 per cent to 14,015.90 on Friday and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.23 per cent to 47,860.77.
The Nifty gained 14.9 per cent in 2020, its best yearly performance since 2017, while the Sensex gained 15.75 per cent. Both the indexes recovered more than 86 per cent from a virus-driven crash in March,boosted by liquidity support measures from global central banks and progress on Covid-19 vaccines.
Investors are eyeing Indian drug regulator's meeting on Friday to consider approving AstraZeneca and Oxford University's Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use.
Among individual shares, Mahindra and Mahindra rose 1.8 per cent. Ford Motor and Mahindra have called off their automotive joint venture due to challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
InterGlobe Aviation fell 1.2 per cent. The company on Thursday disclosed that some of IndiGo's servers were hacked earlier this month.
Most Asian markets and the US market is closed for the newyear holiday.