Indian shares rose on Tuesday, a day after beginning the new year with solid gains, as banking stocks boosted the country’s main indexes amid a steady rise in the number of new cases of COVID-19.

The NSE Nifty 50 index gained 0.46% to 17,706.55 by 9:24 am GMT, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.47% to 59,461.07.

The country reported 37,379 new infections in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Tuesday.

Nifty’s bank index was up 0.6% in early trade after posting its best day since May on Monday.

India began vaccinating those aged 15-18 years on Monday and inoculated more than 3.8 million teenagers on the first day, a move that comes amid fresh curbs and shutdown of educational institutes in anticipation of a looming third wave.

In global markets, Asian peers took the rising cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant in their stride as direct hit from the variant on factory outputs appeared subdued.