Market Live: Sensex opens on a flat note, Nifty above 10,050; Tata stocks gain

Wed Sep 13 2017
Rajesh Sharma (2046 articles)
Market Live: Sensex opens on a flat note, Nifty above 10,050; Tata stocks gain

10:30 am Pharma stocks gain: Divis Laboratories extended its gains from the previous session, jumping around 4 percent intraday.

Investors continued to bet on hopes of better outcome from its unit’s inspection by the US FDA.

Simultaneously, the rally spilled over to a couple of other stocks as well. Sun Pharmaceuticals and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories gained around 2 percent. The latter gained after it sad that its wholly owned arm Aurigene Discovery Technologies plans to initiate phase II clinical trials of oral small molecule CA-170 that targets cancer. The trials will be conducted at various sites in India, Dr Reddy’s said in a filing to BSE.

10:05 am Market Check: Benchmark indices extended their gains from the opening tick, with the Nifty trading above 10,100-mark. Sharp rally in pharmaceuticals and an upmove on Reliance Industries lent support to the Street.

The Sensex was up 77.73 points at 32236.39, while the Nifty was up 22.75 points at 10115.80. The market breadth was positive as 1,192 shares advanced against a decline of 715 shares, while 79 shares were unchanged.

Midcaps continued their outperformance versus frontline indices, while pharmaceuticals, power and PSU bank index were trading on the higher side.

Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, and Tata Power were the top gainers on both indices, while ITC and Larsen & Toubro lost the most.

9:55 am Buzzing Stocks: Shares of Shemaroo Entertainment, V2 Retail and Future Lifestyle Fashions gained 3-12 percent on the back of strong Q1 earnings.

Shemaroo Entertainment has reported 22 percent jump in its Q1FY18 net profit at Rs 16 crore versus Rs 13.1 crore, in a year ago period.

V2 Retail’s Q1FY18 net profit, meanwhile, was up 87 percent at Rs 8.6 crore versus Rs 4.6 crore, in the same quarter last year.

Additionally, Future Lifestyle Fashions registered 29 percent increase in its Q1FY18 net profit at Rs 23.5 crore versus Rs 18.2 crore.

9:45 am Results: The second largest airline Jet Airways on Tuesday said its standalone net income more than doubled to Rs 53.5 crore in the three months to June against Rs 25.9 crore a year ago in spite of a large one-time provisioning of Rs 56.6 crore.

This is the ninth consecutive profitable quarter for the airline after the recovery driven by a rising market and a low fuel price regime since mid 2014.

Total income of the Naresh Goyal-promoted airline rose to Rs 5,953 crore from Rs 5,341 crore, an increase of 11.3 percent driven by increased load factor and an average rise in fares, which was also boosted by increased codeshares with international airlines.

Standalone numbers do not include its subsidiary JetLite. Including this, net rose to Rs 58 crore helped by an 11.8 per cent rise in passenger revenue at Rs 5,136 crore.

9:30 am Corporate update: Drug firm Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) said its wholly owned arm Aurigene Discovery Technologies plans to initiate phase II clinical trials of oral small molecule CA-170 that targets cancer.

The trials will be conducted at various sites in India, Dr Reddy’s said in a filing to BSE.

Commenting on the development, Aurigene CEO CSN Murthy said: “Together with Curis, we have designed a phase II trial in selected populations of patients of interest in the CA-170 programme to be treated at major cancer centres in India”.

9:15 am Market Opens: After two consecutive sessions of positive trade, benchmark indices opened on a flat note.

Adani Transmission, Tata Power and Tata Motors were the top gainers on both indices, while Videocon, IPCA Labs, L&T and Aurobindo Pharma lost the most.

The Indian rupee opened higher by 6 paise at 63.98 per dollar on Wednesday against the level of 64.04 on Tuesday.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, “Easing of North Korea problem helped dollar find support at 63.80 mark. As far as it trades above 63.80, bias will remain positive towards dollar.” “Trading range for the spot USD-INR pair will be 63.80-64.20,” he added.

The dollar extended its sharp rally against the yen, although it was capped against the euro with a potentially supportive spike in US yields neutralized by a similar move by their German counterparts.

Meanwhile, the pound hovered within distance of a one-year high after a robust UK inflation report added pressure on the Bank Of England to do more to support the currency.

Among global markets, Asian shares inched up to a 10-year high on Wednesday, cheered by record highs on Wall Street, while the dollar’s rise against the yen helped boost Japanese shares.

The major Wall Street indexes hit record closing highs on Tuesday, with financial stocks leading the charge, but gains were stunted by a decline in Apple Inc shares after it unveiled its latest line of iPhones.

In case of commodities, Gold prices held steady on Wednesday as the dollar remained firm, with safe-haven demand for the metal buoyed after U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest comments on tensions over North Korea.
Oil prices were mixed early on Wednesday, but largely held on to gains in the previous session after OPEC said it expected higher demand for its crude next year.

Rajesh Sharma

Rajesh Sharma

Rajesh Sharma is Correspondent for Stock Market of South East Asia based in Mumbai. He has been covering Asian markets for more than 5 years.