Indices extend losses; pharma stocks rally

Benchmark indices extended losses in morning trade. The Nifty held on to 17,800 mark. Media, pharmaceutical and oil & gas stocks were in demand while banking and financial shares corrected for second day.

At 10:22 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex declined 473.82 points or 0.79% to 59,702.2. The Nifty 50 index shed 122.85 points or 0.68% at 17,834.1.

The broader market traded with gains. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.29% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.41%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, shares 1892 rose and 1224 shares fell. A total of 118 shares were unchanged.

RBI MPC meet:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be holding its first meeting of the fiscal year 2022-23 fiscal from 6 April to 8 April. MPC's interest rate decision will be announced on 8 April 2022. In the previous meeting, MPC kept the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 4%.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index gained 0.59% to 13,890.05, extending its winning run to third trading session. The pharmaceutical index has added 2.28% in three days.

Strides Pharma Science (up 3.57%), Glenmark Pharma (up 1.49%), Biocon (up 1.21%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 1.13%), Zydus Lifesciences (up 0.99%) and Alkem Laboratories (up 0.96%) were top gainers in pharmaceutical space.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Tata Steel advanced 1.57% to Rs 1366 after the company's India business achieved its highest-ever annual crude steel production of 19.06 million tons in FY22, registering a growth of 13% YoY. During Q4 FY22, Tata Steel India's crude steel production stood at 4.90 million tons, up 2% QoQ. In Q4 FY22, deliveries grew by 16% QoQ to 5.12 million tons.

Marico fell 3.48% to Rs 524.95 after the company said that FMCG volumes declined in the January-February 2022 period on a year-on-year basis. The FMCG major said that in Q4 quarter, consumption trends remained subdued amid weak rural sentiment and inflation in global commodities due to geopolitical tensions. Consolidated revenue growth in the quarter touched high single digits, it said. The company expects a "marginal growth" in profits in Q4 due to a rise in input costs and higher advertising and promotional spending. "While companies affected price hikes across FMCG categories to cope with the cost-push, persistent inflation continued to hurt consumer wallets across rural and urban," it added.

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