Key indices pare losses

Key indices pared losses in the morning trade after a weak opening triggered by the setback suffered by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the Bihar assembly elections. At 10:17 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 302.62 points or 1.15% at 25,962.62. The Sensex was currently trading below the psychological 26,000 level after slipping below that level in the opening trade. The Nifty 50 index was off 89.30 points or 1.12% at 7,865.

Earlier, the Sensex hit its lowest level in almost 6 weeks when it tanked 608.34 points or 2.31% at the day's low of 25,656.90 at the onset of the trading session. The Nifty 50 also hit its lowest level in almost 6 weeks when it slumped 182.60 points or 2.29% at the day's low of 7,771.70 at the onset of the trading session.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar led Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) scored a stunning win in the Bihar assembly elections for which counting took place yesterday, 8 November 2015, dealing a major blow to the BJP. The Grand Alliance won 178 out of the total 243 seats while the BJP secured 53 seats.

The BJP-led NDA has a comfortable majority in Lok Sabha, but lags in numbers in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, where members are elected by the strength of legislators in the states. The Bihar elections were seen as decisive for setting the Centre's economic agenda with some half a dozen state assemblies in the queue to go to the polls in the next few months.

Closer home, the market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was negative. On BSE, 1,148 shares declined and 789 shares rose. A total of 77 shares were unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index was currently down 0.15%. The BSE Small-Cap index was currently off 0.15%. The decline in both these indices was lower than Sensex's decline in percentage terms.

Power generation and distribution stocks edged lower. Adani Power (down 3.99%), JSW Energy (down 1.81%), GVK Power & Infrastructure (down 2.48%), Jaiprakash Power Ventures (down 0.98%), Power Grid Corporation of India (down 2.06%), NTPC (down 1.66%), Torrent Power (down 1.07%), Tata Power (down 1.7%), Reliance Power (down 0.1%), NHPC (down 0.85%) and Reliance Infrastructure (down 0.3%) declined.

Pharma stocks declined. Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 3.57%), Cipla (down 1.57%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 0.1%), Lupin (down 0.62%) and Strides Arcolab (down 0.1%) edged lower. Ipca Laboratories (up 1.42%), Divi's Laboratories (up 0.75%) and GlaxoSmithkline Pharmaceuticals (up 0.41%) edged higher.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (Sun Pharma) tumbled 4.37% at Rs 768.60 after consolidated net profit fell 46.02% to Rs 1106.66 crore on 12.23% decline in total income to Rs 7028.93 crore in Q2 September 2015 over Q2 September 2014. The result was announced on Saturday, 7 November 2015. Sun Pharma's results during the quarter were impacted due to base effect. The company had benefitted significantly in Q2 September 2014 from the 180-day exclusivity on Valsartan tablets in the US. The company's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margin declined to 28% in Q2 September 2015 compared with 38% in Q2 September 2014.

Dilip Shanghvi, Managing Director of Sun Pharma said that the company's performance in Q2 September 2015 and first half of the current financial year was impacted by lower sales growth, volatile currency movements and supply constraints. Integration of Ranbaxy is progressing well and while some of the costs have been incurred, the benefits will be visible going forward, Shanghvi said.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) was off 3.31% at Rs 185.45. The company after market hours on Friday, 6 November 2015 said it has secured prestigious orders, cumulatively valued at Rs 4614 crore, for setting up two supercritical thermal power projects involving one unit each of the country's highest rating 800 megawatts (MW) sets in Andhra Pradesh.

In overseas markets, Asian stocks outside China and Japan edged lower. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite was up 1.55%. China's trade balance rose less-than-expected in October 2015, official data showed yesterday, 8 November 2015. In a report, National Bureau of Statistics of China said that Chinese trade balance rose to $61.64 billion in October, from $60.34 billion in the preceding month. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was up 2.05%. US stocks registered small gains on Friday, 6 November 2015.

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