Indices bounce back

The Sensex and the Nifty came off day's low in early afternoon trade. The Nifty regained 11,600 mark and traded higher. At 12:17 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 51.82 points or 0.13% at 39,110.65. The Nifty 50 index was up 6.85 points or 0.06% at 11,610.95. Indices witnessed a bout of volatility on account of weekly index options expiry today. Traders watched the Maharashtra and Haryana state assembly poll results with caution.

The broader market traded higher. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.08%. The Small-Cap index was up 0.23%.

The market breadth was almost even. On the BSE, 1019 shares rose and 1075 shares fell. A total of 139 shares were unchanged. In the Nifty index, 23 stocks advances while 27 stocks declined.

On the derivatives front, the NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 0.58% to 16.4375. The Nifty October 2019 futures were trading at 11,616.10, a premium of 19.7 points compared with the spot at 11,596.40.

On the options front, the Nifty option chain for 31 October 2019 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 29.73 lakh contracts at the 11,700 strike price. Maximum put OI of 27.27 lakh contracts was seen at 11,000 strike price. The option chain indicates that Nifty will stay between 11,000 and 11,700 in October expiry.

On the political front, the Election Commission (EC) is set to declare the results for the Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections. EC began the counting of votes at 8:00 IST and the final results will be declared by the evening.

Early trends emerging from the counting of votes suggested that BJP is struggling to meet the majority mark in Haryana as initial trends point at a hung Assembly. BJP seems to be falling short of its "75-plus seats" target in Haryana. While Congress is leading on 30 seats, BJP is ahead on 38 seats.

In Maharashtra, official trends showed BJP leading in 102 constituencies, Shiv Sena leading in 64 constituencies, NCP leading in 54 constituencies and Indian National Congress in 37. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the 50:50 formula of ruling decided on before elections will be followed.

Voting in Maharashtra's 288 constituencies and Haryana's 90 constituencies was held on 21 October. In Maharashtra, 61.3% voters turned up to cast their vote while the voter turnout in Haryana was 68.31%.

The Nifty Bank index was down 0.35%, snapping its four-day winning streak.

Private sector bank stocks were bearish. Federal Bank (down 1.8%), IndusInd Bank (down 1.73%), AU Small Finance Bank (down 0.99%), RBL Bank (down 0.93%), Axis Bank (down 0.54%), Yes Bank (down 0.2%) and ICICI Bank (down 0.1%) declined.

PSU banks witnessed steep selling. Oriental Bank of Commerce (down 1.17%), State Bank of India (down 0.93%), Syndicate Bank (down 0.8%), Bank of India (down 0.68%), Punjab National Bank (down 0.41%), Allahabad Bank (down 0.38%), Union Bank of India (down 0.37%) and Bank of Baroda (down 0.2%) tumbled.

Cadila Healthcare rose 0.61%. The company announced that Liva Pharmaceuticals, a wholly-owned subsidiary company received the approval from the USFDA for Haloperidol Decanoate Injection. Haloperidol Decanoate Injection will be manufactured at Liva Pharma's manufacturing facility at Vadodara. Haloperidol is used in the treatment of schizophrenia and for the control of tics and vocal utterances of Tourette syndrome.

Alembic Pharmaceutical rose 1.06%. The firm announced that its joint venture Aleor Dermaceuticals has received approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for Desonide Ointment, 0.05%. Desonide Ointment is a low potency corticosteroid indicated for the relief of the inflammatory and pruritic manifestations of corticosteroid responsive dermatomes. According to IQVIA, Desonide Ointment has an estimated market size of $13 million for twelve months ending December 2018. Aleor Dermaceuticals is a 60:40 joint venture between Alembic and Orbicular Pharmaceutical Technologies focused on commercialising dermatology products globally.

Meanwhile, Alembic Pharmaceuticals will announce its Q2 September 2019 earnings today.

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