India : Nifty ends above 8650 ahead of Aug FO expiry; Aurobindo up 7%

Equity benchmarks ended marginally higher in a choppy trade on Wednesday ahead of expiry of Nifty August futures and options contracts tomorrow. Investors also waited for cues from the Federal Reserve Chief Janet Yellen’s speech at Jackson Hole on Friday.

Volatility on Dalal Street continued for the third consecutive session today. The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 69.73 points at 28059.94 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 17.70 points at 8650.30.

Narrow range for the last few sessions indicates that there could be a breakout most likely on the upside soon, Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com says.

On Friday after (Federal Reserve Chief) Yellen’s speech, the market can see fresh range expansion, he feels.

Global markets were mixed as investors remained cautious ahead of a key speech by US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Friday at Jackson Hole, Wyoming at a global central banking conference, a platform traditionally used by Fed chiefs to hint monetary policy direction.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rose 0.6 percent each on positive market breadth. About 1538 shares advanced against 1176 declining shares on the exchange.

Aurobindo Pharma was the biggest gainer on Nifty, up 7 percent after quarterly earnings, debt reduction and clearance to unit 7 & unit 12 from USFDA.

Cipla, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy’s Labs were other gainers, up 1-2 percent whereas Lupin lost 2 percent despite the company received approval from the US Food & Drug Administration for generic Zyvox tablets that are used to treat infections caused by susceptible gram-positive bacteria.

Maruti Suzuki gained 2.4 percent after CLSA upgraded the stock to buy with a target of Rs 5850 per share. It feels success of new products in personal vehicle segment and reduced exposure to yen works in favour of Maruti. The operational outlook is strong given improving passenger vehicle industry growth and abating margin concerns, says the brokerage house.

Infosys was up 1.8 percent, continuing uptrend for the second consecutive session as analysts feel valuations of the stock are cheap compared to TCS.

Tata group stocks like TCS, Tata Motors and Tata Steel were under pressure, falling over a percent.

In the broader space, Welspun India has locked in lower circuit for third day after some of its most important customers like Walmart, Target and now JC Penney have started internal investigations into possible breach of contracts by the company. The stock lost 42 percent in three sessions.