Broad market depicts strength

Key benchmark indices continued to hover in positive zone in mid-morning trade. At 11:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 67.35 points or 0.23% at 29,489.74. The Nifty 50 index was up 22.85 points or 0.25% at 9,159.25. Positive Asian stocks boosted sentiment on the domestic bourses.

Key benchmark indices edged higher in early trade on positive Asian stocks. Indices were trading with positive bias in morning trade.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.51%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.96%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The broad market depicted strength. There were two gainers against every loser on BSE. 1,671 shares rose and 834 shares fell. A total of 110 shares were unchanged.

Pharma shares saw mixed trend. Cipla (down 1.39%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 0.17%), Lupin (down 0.41%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.68%) fell. Alkem Laboratories (up 0.59%), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.2%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 0.37%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.8%) and Wockhardt (up 0.06%) rose.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries fell 2.14% on report that the company has received 11 observations from the US drug regulator for its Dadra unit. According to a media report, while inspecting the plant, the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) found incomplete lab records at Sun Pharmaceutical Industries' Dadra plant. These observations include failure to produce appropriate master or control record for each batch of drugs and failure to properly investigate batches that does not meet specifications. Inspection of the plant by USFDA was concluded in the first week of this month, report added.

Report suggested that the Dadra site is the biggest unit for the company after Halol plant, for supplying drug in the United States.

Telecom stocks rose. Bharti Airtel (up 0.2%), Idea Cellular (up 0.83%), MTNL (up 1.93%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 0.57%) and Reliance Communications (up 0.89%) rose.

Shares of Bharti Infratel rose 1.65%. Bharti Infratel is a provider of tower and related infrastructure and is a unit of Bharti Airtel.

Overseas, Asian stocks were trading higher after Bank of Japan's (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda maintained an accommodative monetary policy and on optimism for a US tax overhaul. US stocks closed higher yesterday, 20 April 2017 on rising expectations for first-quarter corporate profits.

Speaking a week before the BOJ monetary policy, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said that the Bank of Japan will continue with very accommodative monetary policy and maintain the current pace of asset purchases for some time. While Japan's economy is doing better than thought a few months ago, the inflation rate is still quite sluggish, Kuroda said in New York yesterday, 20 April 2017.

Markets are awaiting several economic indicators from Europe later in the session, including Eurozone manufacturing and services figures for April and British retail sales for March, to be followed by US manufacturing and services data for April and existing home sales for March.

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