Benchmarks trade in narrow range; Asian Paints up 5%

Equity indices traded sideways near the flat line with small gains in morning trade. The Nifty traded below 18,300 mark. PSU banks, pharma and FMCG stocks edged higher while banks and financial shares declined.

At 10:31 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 66.88 points or 0.11% to 61,417.85. The Nifty 50 index rose 26.85 points or 0.15% to 18,295.35.

The broader market outperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.45% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.72%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1988 shares rose and 975 shares fell. A total of 113 shares were unchanged.

Results Today:

Larsen & Toubro (up 0.62%), ITC (up 1.14%), IndusInd Bank (up 0.17%), Bajaj Auto (down 0.03%), Titan Company (down 0.01%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 0.02%), SBI Life Insurance Company (up 1.51%) and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (up 0.41%) will announce their quarterly results today.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (down 3.42%), Adani Enterprises (up 0.83%), Lupin (up 1.1%), Deepak Nitrite (down 1%), Oracle Financial Services Software (up 0.56%), Tata Chemicals (down 0.43%), United Breweries (up 0.79%), Aarti Drugs (down 0.78%), Balaji Amines (down 1.77%), Happiest Minds Technologies (up 0.74%), KEC International (up 0.04%), KEI Industries (down 5.53%), Praj Industries (up 1.78%) and United Spirits (up 1.07%) will also release their September 2021 quarter earnings today.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index gained 0.98% to 14,107.30, rising for second trading session. The pharmaceutical index rose 1.17% in two days.

Divi's Laboratories (up 2.59%), Sun Pharmaceutical Inds (up 1.66%), IPCA Laboratories (up 1.17%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.15%), Granules India (up 1.05%) and Biocon (up 1.03%) were top gainers in pharmaceutical space.

Cipla gained 1.29% after the drug major's consolidated net profit grew 7% year on year to Rs 711 crore on a 10% rise in total revenue from operations to Rs 5,520 crore in Q2 FY22 over Q2 FY21. The drug maker's profit before tax increased 7.5% to Rs 995.81 crore in Q2 FY22 as compared to Rs 925.65 reported in Q2 FY21. EBITDA rose 4% year on year to Rs 1,226 crore in Q2 FY22. EBITDA margin for Q2 FY22 stood at 22.2% as compared to 23.4% posted in Q2 FY21. R&D investments stood at Rs 274 crore in Q2 FY22 with priority projects spends on track.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Asian Paints jumped 5.07% while Berger Paints India rose 2.96% after the paint makers reportedly announced price hikes effective from 12 November.

Firstsource Solutions rose 1.05% after the IT company said that it has partnered with Eco-Mail for strengthening workflow digitization for health plans amidst permanent shift to a remote workforce. Eco-Mail is the leading, scalable platform for transforming physical mail into digital assets, enabling electronic distribution, delivery, accountability, and integration with existing systems.

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