Last trading day of 2020: Sensex, Nifty end at fresh record highs; close year with nearly 15% gains

New Delhi: Markets closed almost flat on Thursday on the last trading day of 2020 amidst hopes of COVID-19 vaccines rollout across the globe for further bets.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 5.11 points 0.01 percent to its new closing record of 47,751.33. After opening higher at 47,753.11, the index hit its all-time high of 47,896.97 during the day and touched a low of 47,602.12. The broader NSE Nifty crossed the record 14,000 level for the first time, touching an intra-day peak of 14,024.85. The 50-issue index pared gains to close at 13,981.75, down by just 0.20 points.

The indices, however, closed the year 2020 with overall gains of around 15 per cent. Sensex gained 15.7 per cent while Nifty jumped 14.9 percent in the year.

Major gainers on the Sensex pack were HDFC, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Asian Paint, Titan, Infosys, Dr Reddy's, HCL Tech, Maruti, and NTPC. On the other hand, major losers were TCS, Ultrachem, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Bank, Tech Mahindra, ITC, SBI, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserve, HUL and RIL, falling upto 1.33 percent.

On Thursday, the last trading day of 2020, Brent was down 8 cents, or 0.2%, at $51.55 a barrel as of 1015 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate lost 10 cents, or 0.2%, to $48.30 a barrel, a Reuters report said.

UK`s FTSE 100 fell 1.7% and France`s CAC 40 0.4%. U.S. stock futures were 0.15% lower, pointing to a weaker open on Wall Street.

The MSCI World Index was down on the day as gains in Asia gave way to the losses in Europe. The index is headed for a near 14% rise in 2020 after surging more than 60% from its March lows, Reuters added.