Benchmarks come off day's high; pharma shares advance

The key equity indices came off the day's high in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:23 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 294.65 points or 0.59% to 49,956.41. The Nifty 50 index rallied 118.40 points or 0.80% at 14,937.45. Pharma shares extended their wining streak for third day.

The broader market rallied. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.91%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 1.05%.

Buyers outnumbered sellers. On the BSE, 1897 shares rose and 949 shares fell. A total of 162 shares were unchanged.

Investors risk appetite improved after the minutes of last month's meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve suggested that Fed officials were united on the need to see more progress on economic recovery before scaling back their bond-buying program.

Domestic sentiment also received a boost after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday kept its monetary policy accommodative to support economic growth.

Numbers To Track:

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee rose to 74.4750 compared with its previous closing of 74.4775.

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper fell to 6.050% as compared to its previous close of 6.082%.

MCX Gold futures for 4 June 2021 settlement added 0.19% to Rs 46,450.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, shed 0.13% to 92.34.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for June 2021 settlement shed 20 cents to $62.96 a barrel. The contract gained 0.67% or 42 cents to settle at $63.16 in the previous trading session.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index rose 0.63% to 12,696.35, extending gains for third day. The index has added 2.96% in three sessions.

Cadila Healthcare (up 2.98%), Lupin (up 1.96%), Divi's Labs (up 1.38%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.80%), Cipla (up 0.78) and Dr. Reddy's Labs (up 0.69%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Minda Corporation rose 2.14% to Rs 102.80. the company announced its partnership with Israel-based Ride Vision, a leading ADAS (rider assistance systems) solutions company, to bring its range of artificial intelligence-enabled collision avoidance technology products for the Indian two-wheeler market.

Hester Biosciences jumped 10.78% to Rs 2230. The company announced signing of agreement with ICAR-IVRI (Indian Council of Agri Research - Indian Veterinary Research Institute) for acquiring technologies for the production and commercialisation of classical swine fever vaccine & sheep pox vaccine.

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