Key indices edge higher in early trade

Key benchmark indices edged higher in early trade. At 9:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 81.99 points or 0.33% at 25,183.72. The gains for the Nifty 50 index were lower than the Sensex's gain in percentage terms. The Nifty was currently up 13.95 points or 0.18% at 7,720.50.

In overseas stock markets, Asian stocks witnessed mixed trend. Latest data showed that growth in the services sector in China moderated last month. The China Caixin services purchasing managers' index (PMI) came in at 51.8 for April, continuing to show expansion but marking a moderation from 52.2 in March. In China, the Shanghai Composite index was currently down 0.31%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was currently down 0.45%. US stocks closed lower yesterday, 4 May 2016, led by losses in energy and utilities stocks.

Closer home, the broad market depicted strength. There were nearly two gainers against every loser on BSE. 634 shares rose and 324 shares declined. A total of 45 shares were unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index was currently up 0.01%. The BSE Small-Cap index was currently up 0.13%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

Telecom stocks edged higher. Bharti Airtel (up 0.39%), Idea Cellular (up 0.17%) and Reliance Communications (up 0.45%) rose.

Shares of telecom towers company Bharti Infratel were down 0.53% at Rs 372.60.

Wipro lost 0.31% at Rs 538.15. Wipro and Qlik, a leader in visual analytics, have collaborated to offer advanced enterprise analytics solutions to joint customers across industry sectors. Wipro's competency in delivering end-to-end Business Intelligence (BI) solutions combined with QlikView, Qlik's market-leading data discovery solution, will widen the scope and scale of visualization solutions offered to customers, Wipro said in a statement.

As part of this expanded alliance, QlikView is now fully integrated into Wipro's SmartView-ServiceNXT analytics solution which converts complex data to easy visuals, leading to simplified decision making. This integrated environment will result in customized offerings that will help organizations model, optimize, forecast, budget, execute, manage, and measure product and customer performance across the globe at the click of a button. In addition, QlikView has been integrated into Wipro's SNIPE-BI Transformation Solution, which empowers enterprises to simplify the BI landscape by standardizing and setting up the right set of governance, processes and policies with robust migration frameworks, tools, and accelerators to assist in seamless transformation journeys.

Wipro and Qlik will jointly bring these solutions to market. The companies will collaborate and drive the resultant synergies to customers to deliver a self-service analytics culture. The companies have been jointly hosting several initiatives to upskill and cross-skill resources from Wipro, including Innovation Days and Qlik Academy courses. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 May 2016.

HDFC rose 1.16% at Rs 1,144.10. The company after trading hours yesterday, 4 May 2016, announced that it intends to raise Rs 1135 crore through private placement of senior secured redeemable non-convertible debentures. HDFC said that the coupon rate of debentures is 8.34% per annum with a tenor of 2 years and 10 months. The issue opens and closes on the same day tomorrow, 6 May 2016. The object of the issue is to augment the long-term resources of the company.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries rose 2.41% at Rs 822.10 after the company announced that the two pivotal phase-3 clinical trials evaluating the efficacy and safety of the investigational IL-23p19 inhibitor antibody tildrakizumab (MK-3222) in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis met their primary endpoints for both evaluated doses. The overall safety profile of tildrakizumab in both phase-3 clinical trials was consistent with the safety data observed in previously reported studies, the company said. The preparations for submission of a Biologics License Application to the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) are proceeding. The detailed findings from the phase-3 clinical trials will be presented at upcoming scientific meetings. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 4 May 2016.

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