Market Live: Sensex, Nifty flat in opening; MM, Tata Motors, TCS early gainers
10.08 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended losses in morning trade, with the Nifty falling below 9600 level and the Midcap losing over a percent on profit booking ahead of long weekend.
The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 85.74 points at 31,205 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 42 points to 9,588.
The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices lost 1.4 percent each as about three shares declined for every share rising on the exchange.
Equity markets will remain shut on Monday for Ramzan Id holiday.
9:59 am Court settlement: Wockhardt shares gained as much as 3 percent in morning trade after its subsidiaries settled commercial litigation with Teva Pharmaceuticals.
“Wockhardt UK Holdings and CP Pharmaceuticals, in the United Kingdom have settled an ongoing commercial litigation before the High Court in London, UK in relation to supply contract for a drug named Trisenox,” the healthcare firm said in its filing.
The dispute between parties was in respect of the price charged by CP to its counterparty to the contract, Cephalon Inc, an affiliate of Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.
As per settlement, CP Pharma has agreed to waive its claim for the outstanding trade receivable of 20 million pound and accordingly dropped its counterclaim for the said amount and further paid a sum of 23 million pound to Teva and Cephalon by way of full and final settlement of Teva’s claims, Wockhardt said.
Pursuant to this settlement, the ongoing litigation stands closed and all claims are dismissed.
9:43 am Buzzing: Shares of Mindtree gained nearly 3 percent intraday as it is going to consider buyback of its equity shares.
A meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on June 28, to consider the proposal to buyback the fully paid-up equity shares of the company.
The company’s 18th annual general meeting (AGM) will be held on July 18, 2017.
9:30 am FII View: Laurence Balanco of CLSA said recent divergence suggests the market is due a pause/correction in the short term.
However, due to the bullish long-term profile for the Nifty, any short-term weakness back towards the 8,989-9,191 area should be seen as an attractive buying opportunity in anticipation of further gains towards our next target areas at 10,350, 11,547 and 12,000, he feels.
Also read – Buy, Sell, Hold: 4 stocks and 1 sector are on analysts’ radar today
9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks opened flat with moderate gains as investors cautiously awaited Goods & Services Tax that is expected to be implemented from July 1.
The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 65.58 points at 31,356.32 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 12.25 points to 9,642.25.
TCS, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Lupin, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Kotak Mahindra Bank and GAIL were early gainers while Tata Steel, Wipro, ITC, Hero Motocorp and HCL Technologies were under pressure.
About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.
Shriram EPC rallied 10 percent on orders worth Rs 165 crore under water management business.
Reliance Defence, HUDCO, Wockhardt, Manappuram Finance, Indiabulls Real, Himatsingka Seide and Amtek Auto gained 1-5 percent while Fortis Healthcare and Electrosteel Steels and Lanco Infratech fell 4-6 percent.
The Indian rupee opened marginally higher at 64.56 per dollar against previous close of 64.59.
Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank said the USD-INR pair continued to consolidate in a very narrow band, with the dollar index rising from recent lows and the dollar gaining against most other currencies.”
He expects the pair to continue trading in the 64.40-64.70/dollar range today.
Markets in Asia traded sideways as oil prices advanced off 10-month lows.
