Markets trim losses; pharma stocks gain

Pharma stocks emerged as the top gainers while IT majors eased

Benchmark share indices came off their intra-day lows after gains in pharma shares helped offset some of the losses in IT majors. Further, caution was seen ahead of the meetings of the central banks in Japan and the US.

At 10:45am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 58 points at 28,576 and the Nifty50 was down 22 points at 8,786. The broader market outperformed the benchmarks, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.1%-0.3% each. Market breadth was positive with 1073 gainers and 1027 gainers.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 205 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

In the pharma pack, Cipla, Aurorobindo Pharma and Dr Reddy's Labs gained over 1% each.

Index heavyweights Infosys, HDFC and ITC were the top losers in early trades.

ICICI Bank which had gained in the previous session after the IPO of its insurance arm ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Corporation opened for subscription witnessed profit taking and was marginally down.

Auto stocks were trading mixed with two-wheeler majors coming off their recent highs while Maruti Suzuki and M&M were trading 0.5%-1% higher.

Among other shares, Jubilant FoodWorks slumped 7% after the company in a release said that Ajay Kaul, CEO and Wholetime Director of the company has resigned.

Castrol India has rallied 9% to Rs 459 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in early morning trade after a more than 1% stake changed hands in the counter post multiple block deals on the NSE and Bombay Stock Exchange.

Global Markets

Asian markets were trading weak as investors turned cautious ahead of the outcome of the policy meetings of central banks in Japan and the US. The Bank of Japan's two-day policy meets ends on Wednesday. Meanwhile, trading resumed in Japan after a holiday on Monday. The benchmark Nikkei was trading flat while Straits Times, Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were down 0.2% each.

US stocks came off their intra-day highs amid a choppy trading session to end flat with negative bias ahead of the US Federal Reserve two-day policy meet which begins on Tuesday. Further, Japan's central bank, the Bank of Japan is also holding its policy meeting which ends on Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 4 points at 18,129, the S&P 500 ended nearly unchanged at 2,139 and the Nasdaq settled 10 points lower at 5,235.