Share markets in India are presently trading marginally higher.

The BSE Sensex is trading up 18 points, up 0.04% at 49,287 levels.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading up by 15 points.

Tata Motors and Eicher Motors are among the top gainers today. Divi's Laboratories and Asian Paints are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.8%.

The BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.4%.

On the sectoral front, stocks from the real estate sector are witnessing most of the buying interest.

On the other hand, stocks from the FMCG sector, are witnessing most of the selling pressure.

US stock futures are trading higher today, indicating a positive opening for Wall Street indices.

Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 32 points (up 0.2%) while Dow Futures are trading up by 39 points (up 0.1%).

The rupee is trading at 73.35 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up 0.3% at Rs 49,465 per 10 grams.

In international markets, gold prices edged higher but a stronger US dollar capped gains.

Amid mixed global cues, gold and silver prices in India continued their volatile ride of the year. On MCX, February gold futures edged 0.03% lower to Rs 49,328 per 10 grams while silver futures declined 0.2% to Rs 65,414 per kg. In the previous session, gold prices had risen 0.7% after a massive fall on Friday last week.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Among the buzzing stocks, today is Tata Motors.

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on January 11 released its 2020 sales figures, which reflected a considerable hit as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic but highlighted signs of recovery as sales in China remained strong.

For the calendar year 2020, retail sales for Jaguar Land Rover were 425,974 (vehicles), down 23.6% from 2019, reflecting the industry impact of COVID-19 particularly in the first half of the year when plants were shut down for more than two months.

However, the company said it has since seen sales increase quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) by over 53% in the quarter ended September 30, 2020, followed by a 13.1% increase in the most recent quarter.

Retail sales for the quarter ending December 31, 2020, were 128,469 vehicles, 13.1% higher than the 113,569 vehicles sold in the preceding quarter, but down 9% on the same period last year. The company said China sales were particularly encouraging as they were up 20.2% on the prior quarter and 19.1% year-on-year (YoY).

We will keep you posted on more updates from this space. Stay tuned.

At the time of writing, Tata Motors' share price was trading up 10.2% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the Indian pharma sector...

Dr Reddy's Gets Nod To Conduct Phase-3 Trial Of COVID-19 Vaccine

Dr Reddy's on January 11 announced that the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) has reviewed the safety data from Phase 2 of the clinical trial of the Sputnik V vaccine and has recommended Phase 3 recruitment of the clinical trial without any modifications.

"The safety data from the phase 2 clinical trial from India is very positive and confirms the safety profile of Sputnik V in the international markets. The Sputnik V consistently shows safety and high efficacy in international clinical trials as it is based on a safe human adenoviral vector platform," Dr Reddy's said in a statement.

The phase 2 study of Sputnik V was conducted on 100 subjects as part of a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study in India. The DSMB concluded that no safety concerns were identified and the study has met the primary endpoints of safety, Dr Reddy's said.

The clinical trials are being conducted by JSS Medical Research as the clinical research partner in India. Dr. Reddy's has partnered with the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for advisory support, THSTI (Translational Health Science and Technology Institute) for further immunogenicity data characterization, and to use BIRAC's clinical trial centers for the vaccine.

Currently, the vaccine's clinical trials are underway in UAE, Egypt, Venezuela, and Belarus while it has been registered in Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Bolivia, and Serbia for inoculation.

In September 2020, Dr. Reddy's and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) entered into a partnership to conduct the clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine and the rights for distribution in India.

Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, was registered by the Ministry of Health of Russia and became the world's first registered vaccine against COVID-19 based on the established human adenoviral vector platform.

It currently ranks among the top 10 candidate vaccine on the World Health Organization's (WHO) list. The vaccine's efficacy is confirmed at 91.4% based on data analysis of the final control point of clinical trials in Russia.

How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates from this space.

Here's an interesting data on Dr. Reddy's Lab, investing just Rs 100,000 in Dr. Reddy's Labs in 1992, it would have given a whopping Rs 48.9 million in 2014!