The Indian equity benchmark indices opened at record levels on Tuesday following a rally in global markets as hopes of a COVID-19 vaccine improved sentiment.

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At 9:15 am, the Sensex opened 1.05 percent, or 457.87 points, higher at 44,095.85, while the Nifty50 index opened at 12,932.50, up 152.25 points, or 1.19 percent.

Investors' risk appetite was boosted after US-based biotechnology firm Moderna Inc said its vaccine candidate has been found to be 94.5 percent effective in preventing COVID-19, based on Phase 3 trials. This comes just a week after Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE announced that their vaccine candidate was more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19.

Broader markets supported the frontline indices with Nifty Smallcap100 and Nifty Midcap100 indices up 0.12 percent and 0.53 percent, respectively.

Barring Nifty IT, all the sectoral indices were trading in the green led by Nifty Metal and Nifty PSU Bank.

Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Hindalco, Bharti Airtel and SBI led the gains among Nifty50 constituents while BPCL, Hero MotoCorp, IOC, HCL Technologies and ITC were the top index losers.

Shares of Tata Steel gained over 3 percent after the company reported better operational performance in the September quarter. The company’s consolidated net profit in Q2FY21 declined 59.6 percent to Rs 1,635.4 crore from Rs 4,043.5 crore, while revenue rose 7.4 percent to Rs 37,154 crore from Rs 34,759 crore, YoY.

EBITDA increased 59.7 percent to Rs 6,217 crore from Rs 3,893 crore and EBITDA margin expanded to 16.7 percent from 11.3 percent, YoY.

Globally, Asian stocks cautiously pushed further into record territory on Tuesday, and oil edged higher after US benchmarks were pepped up by news of another promising coronavirus vaccine, Reuters reported.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.11 percent on Tuesday morning, a day after hitting its highest level since launching in 1987.

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