Markets hold gains; pharma stocks under pressure after Trump speech

The overall market breadth remained negative, with about 1,132 advances against 1,423 declines

Benchmark Indices continued to rise in the after-noon trade led by IT stocks on hopes U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may not proceed with stringent visa rules.

 

Gains were capped by pharma stocks after Trump said pharmaceutical companies are "getting away with murder" in what they charge the government for medicines, and promised that would change in his first presser.

 

In a choppy trade, Nifty continued to hover around it’s 8,400 mark which it hit earlier in the day led by gains in NTPC, PowerGrid, Tata Power and L&T while Sensex continued to stay 100 points higher.

 

At 1:20 pm, the Sensex was trading at 27,257, up 117 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 8,409, up 29 points.

 

The broader market underperformed the headline indices with BSE Midcap gaining 0.09% and BSE Smallcap losing 0.01%. 

The overall market breadth remained negative, about 1132 shares have advanced, 1423 shares declined, and 152 shares are unchanged.

 

NTPC, Power Grid, L&T, Infosys and ONGC are top gainers while Dr Reddy’s, Coal India, Lupin, and Sun Pharma are top laggards in the Sensex.

 

IT Index rose over 1% on BSE with Infosys gaining more than 2% in today’s trade ahead of it’s Q3 earnings tomorrow..

 

Nifty Pharma index fell as much as 2.24 pct, contributing to more than half the losses on the NSE index after Trump’s presser. Top losers include Cadila Healthcare, down 2.9%, Sun Pharma down, 2.96%, and Aurobindo Pharma down 3.76%. 

 

Biocon shares rallied 5% to Rs 1052 after the biotech firm and pharma firm Mylan said that the US health regulator has accepted Mylan's biologics license application (BLA) for MYL- 1401O, a proposed biosimilar trastuzumab indicated for treatment of breast cancer.

 

Shares of public sector undertaking companies (PSUs) were in focus with the S&P BSE PSU index hitting 22-month high on Thursday in intra-day trade after strong gain in electric utilities and oil & gas stocks.

 

Total 12 PSU stocks include NTPC, NHPC, Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Moil and MMTC hit their respective 52-week highs, while, Bharat Electronics, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Power Grid Corporation of India hit lifetime highs on the BSE.

 

NTPC gained around 5% in afternoon trade after reports that it has signed a non-binding agreement with Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd and Rajasthan Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd for takeover of Chhabra Thermal Power Plant.