Sensex hovers near 28,000; pharma shares gain

Benchmark indices remain range bound and are trading flat with a positive bias. The gains in information technology and pharmaceutical shares have limited the losses in select financials and capital goods shares.
 
 At 11:15 AM, the 30-share Sensex and the 50-share Nifty were flat at the mark of 28,029 and 8,384 respectively.
 
In the broader market, both BSE midcap and smallcap indices have outperformed their larger peers with gains of 0.1% each. Market breadth in BSE is marginally positive with 1,221 advances against 1,165 declines.
 

The rupee is trading at 62.10 against US Dollar. The rupee slumped to its lowest level of 62.22 per dollar in nine months on Thursday, tracking the dollar's strength against major currencies and other Asian peers. State-owned banks' dollar demand for Iran oil payments also weighed.

 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 71.80 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
 
 Buzzing Stocks
 
BSE Healthcare index, up 0.8% and BSE IT index up 0.6% are the lead gainers while BSE Consumer Durables index has lost more than 1%.
 
SBI, up 2% is among the biggest gainers after the stock turned ex-stock split today. The country’s largest public sector lender had subdivided the face value of its equity shares to Re 1 from Rs 10.
 
The financial sector is otherwise subdued. Axis Bank and mortgage finance major HDFC have shed 0.8% and 1.2% each.

 
Pharma shares have seen fresh buying. Sun Pharma and Cipla have gained around 1% each and Dr Reddys Lab is up 0.5%.
 
 Depreciation of rupee against Us Dollar has lifted select Information technology shares. Infosys has gained around 0.6%. Overseas investors have raised their stake in the company to a nine and half-year high of nearly 42.6% during the quarter ended September 2014.
 
From auto space, Tata Motors continues to remain under pressure and has lost more than 1%. M&M has lost close to 1%.
 
The issuance of draft guidelines on coal block re-allocation in which the bidding  would be open to specified end use projects in power, steel and iron, and cement sectors has seen Hindalco shares gaining by more than 1% and Sesa Sterlite marginally up by 0.1%  while Tata Steel and Coal India have lost around 0.4% each.

 
Among other shares, ITD Cementation India has rallied 7%  after the HDFC Mutual Fund bought 238,000 shares or 1.5% stake in the construction and engineering company via open market.
 
Asian Market

Boosted by further weakening of the yen, Japanese shares are able to hold steady. Nikkei is trading with a gain of 0.2%.
 
Meanwhile, concerns about China's economic growth brought in focus by the fall in HSBC/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) to a six-month low of 50 in November from 50.4 in October have dragged Chinese shares. Hang Seng is marginally high by 0.2% while Shanghai Composite index is trading flat.