Market breadth turns negative; pharma shares slide for 3rd day

The domestic equity barometers continued to trade with deep cuts in mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded a tad below the 17,000 mark. Pharma shares extended losses for the third day in a row.

At 11:26 IST, the barometer index, S&P BSE Sensex was down 360.87 points or 0.63% to 56,615.12. The Nifty 50 index lost 112.90 points or 0.66% to 16,956.20.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.37% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.04%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative. On the BSE, 1412 shares rose while 1774 shares fell. A total of 133 shares were unchanged.

The US Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates Wednesday for the second time since 2018, boosting the fed funds target rate by a half-percentage point. The central bank is also expected to launch a program to reduce its massive bond holdings by $95 billion a month, starting in June.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index fell 2.42% to 13,134.70. The index has declined 2.56% in three sessions.

Alembic Pharmaceuticals (down 7.92%), Dr. Reddy's Lab (down 3.04%), Sun Pharma (down 2.92%), Torrent Pharma (down 2.72%), Strides Pharma (down 2.96%),

Further, Gland Pharma (down 2.56%), Cipla (down 2.55%), Divi's Labs (down 2.48%), Zydus Lifesciences (down 2.30%), Glenmark Pharma (down 2.25%) and Aurobindo Pharma (down 2.11%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Hero MotoCorp fell 1.16% to Rs 2457.60. The two-wheeler major's standalone net profit declined 27.51% to Rs 627.05 crore on 14.55% fall in net sales to Rs 7,421.73 crore in Q4 March 2022 over Q4 March 2021.

JSW Energy added 3.18% to Rs 315.05 after the company reported a multi-fold jump in consolidated net profit of Rs 864.35 crore in Q4 FY22 as compared to a net profit of Rs 106.60 crore in Q4 FY21. Net sales stood at Rs 2,440.68 crore in Q4 FY22, up 55.5% YoY.

Ramkrishna Forgings rose 1.29% to Rs 192.40. The company's standalone net profit jumped 142.9% to Rs 86.65 crore on a 31.9% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 683.24 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks traded mixed on Wednesday, with investors looking ahead to the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate decision expected later stateside. Markets in Japan and mainland China are closed on Wednesday for holidays.

Meanwhile, the British factory activity edged up in April after slowing to its weakest in just over a year in March following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but manufacturers remained wary about the outlook as costs leapt and demand faltered, a survey reportedly showed on Tuesday.

The S&P Global/CIPS manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 55.8 in April from March's 13-month low of 55.2, a slightly bigger rise than the increase to 55.3 in an earlier 'flash' estimate.

Wall Street stocks ended higher on Tuesday after a choppy session in which each of the major indexes fluctuated between gains and losses as a key meeting of the Federal Reserve got under way.

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