Pharma stocks boost markets, Dr Reddys Labs up 3%

Markets contined to trade firm on renewed buying interest in pharma shares. Further, buying by foreign funds also helped boost investor sentiment.

At 11:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 99 points at 21,086 and the 50-share Nifty was up    23 points at 6,262.

In the broader markets, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.4% each.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 511.15 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Meanwhile, consensus estimates GDP growth for the December quarter is expected to be 4.7 per cent. The government will announce GDP figures for the December 2013 quarter later today.

The rupee was trading lower at 62.10 per dollar versus its previous close of 61.98 on Wednesday. Month-end dollar demand from importers is likely to keep the USD/INR pair bid.

Asian markets remained subdued. Japan's factory output in January grew at its fastest pace in more than two years. Industrial output January increased to 4%. The growth was the highest since June 2011 when the output rose 4.2%. However, investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of China's manufacturing PMI data. Nikkei, Shanghai Composite, Straits Times and Hang Seng were down 0.1-1% each.

The BSE Healthcare index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up 1.7% followed by Capital Goods, IT, Auto and Realty indices.

Pharma shares were among the top gainers on the back of defensive buying. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories is trading over 2% higher, extending its previous day’s 2% gain, after the company said it has launched Sumatriptan Injection USP in the US.

Among others Sun Pharma, Cipla, Wockhardt, Glenmark Pharma, Biocon and Aurobindo Pharma were up 1.5-4% each.

Tata Motors has moved higher by 4% to Rs 416, also its record high on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). According to media reports, the country’s largest automobile company is exploring the possibility of setting up a manufacturing plant for Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) in Saudi Arabia.

Capital Goods shares were also among the top gainers with L&T and BHEL up over 1.1% each.

Other Sensex gainers include, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, ITC and ONGC.

Maruti Suzuki India has slipped over 4% to Rs 1,595 levels, after the company clarified regarding its board's decision on the proposed Gujarat project. MSIL said that if the contract manufacturing agreement between the company and Suzuki Motor Gujarat expires and in case not extended by mutual consent, the assets of the Gujarat subsidiary would be transferred to MSIL at a fair value to be determined by independent valuation.

Bharti Airtel was down nearly 1% on reports that Nigeria's telecom regulator has fined mobile operators MTN , Airtel and Globacom a combined 647.5 million naira and banned them from selling SIM cards in March due to poor service.

Reliance Industries was down nearly 1%. Reliance Industries Ltd denied the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s allegations against the company and its chief Mukesh Ambani. It said the AAP’s “continued tirade” against RIL appeared to be instigated by vested interests.
 
Market breadth was strong with 1,227 gainers and 934 losers on the BSE.