Market registers small losses in lacklustre session

Key equity benchmark indices registered small losses in a lacklustre trading session. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 47.42 points or 0.18% at 26,711.81, as per the provisional closing data. The Nifty 50 index lost 8.65 points or 0.1% at 8,235.15, as per the provisional closing data. Market sentiment was sombre amid weakness in European stock indices and mixed trend among Asian peers.

The Sensex lost 58.05 points or 0.21% at the day's low of 26,701.18 in mid-morning trade, its lowest level since 4 January 2017. It rose 101.65 points or 0.37% at the day's high of 26,860.88 in early trade. The Nifty lost 16.05 points or 0.19% at the day's low of 8,227.75 in mid-morning trade, its lowest level since 5 January 2017. It rose 19.20 points or 0.23% at the day's high of 8,263 in early trade.

The BSE Mid-Cap index provisionally rose 0.23%. The BSE Small-Cap index provisionally advanced 0.45%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1,605 shares rose and 1,226 shares declined. A total of 115 shares were unchanged.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 2759.62 crore, lower than turnover of Rs 3334.06 crore registered during the previous trading session.

IT stocks were mostly higher. HCL Technologies (up 2.89%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.01%), TCS (up 0.94%), Wipro (up 0.62%) and Infosys (up 0.01%) edged higher. Oracle Financial Services Software (down 1.06%) and Persistent Systems (down 0.22%) edged lower.

Aurobindo Pharma rose 0.21% after the company announced on Saturday, 7 January 2017, that it has received final approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) to manufacture and market Levetiracetam in Sodium Chloride Injection, 500 mg/100 mL (5 mg/mL), 1000 mg/100 mL (10 mg/mL), and 1500 mg/100 mL (15mg/mL) (single-use bags). Aurobindo's Levetiracetam in Sodium Chloride Injection is a generic equivalent of HQ Specialty Pharma Corp's Levetiracetam in Sodium Chloride Injection. The product will be launched in January 2017.

Levetiracetam in Sodium Chloride Injection is a CNS drug and indicated for partial onset seizures in adults (16 years and older) with epilepsy; myoclonic seizures in adults with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy;primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures in adults with idiopathic generalized epilepsy. The approved product has an estimated market size of $32 million for the twelve months ending November 2016, according to IMS.

Separately, Aurobindo Pharma announced on Saturday, 7 January 2017 that its wholly owned step-down subsidiary Agile Pharma B.V., Netherlands has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% shareholding in Generis Farmaceutica S.A for 135 million euro from Magnum Capital Partners. The acquisition includes the manufacturing facility in Amadora, Portugal, which has the capacity to manufacture 1.2 billion tablets/capsules/sachets annually. Generis is engaged in manufacture and sale of pharmaceutical products in Portugal.

The indicative time period for completion of the acquisition is February 2017. Closing of the transaction is conditional on obtaining necessary approvals from Portuguese authorities.

Tata Steel was up 0.26% after the company announced that it has inaugurated the second phase of cold rolling mill (CRM) complex BARA at Jamshedpur on 5 January 2017. During phase I, the reversing mill of 0.25 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity was installed at CRM BARA to meet the full hard cold rolled (FHCR) requirement of Tata Blue Scope (TBSL). The phase II expansion of CRM BARA includes installation of 0.3 MTPA hot rolled skin passing mill (HSPM) to meet the increased demand of hot-rolled, pickled, skin passed and oiled products (HRSPO) in the automotive sector for high-end customers. The announcement was made on Saturday, 7 January 2017.

Separately, Tata Steel said that its total sales rose 27.45% to 29.94 lakh tonnes in Q3 December 2016 over Q3 December 2015. The growth in sales was enabled by higher sales in the automotive segment, branded products and value-added products & scaling up of sales in new segments, which registered a five-fold growth on year-on-year basis. The announcement was made during market hours today, 9 January 2017.

Tata Motors rose 0.62% after the company's subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) total retail sales rose 12% to 55,375 units in December 2016 over December 2015. The sales growth was primarily driven by the ongoing success of the Jaguar F-PACE, Land Rover Discovery Sport and the Range Rover Sport as well as strong demand for the long wheel base Jaguar XFL in China. The announcement was made during market hours today, 9 January 2017.

Overseas, major European stock indices edged lower amid steep losses in Deutsche Lufthansa AG, William Hill PLC and Fresenius after these companies gave a discouraging update on their businesses.

Asian stocks were mixed. Japan stock market was shut for a holiday. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite ended 0.54% higher. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng closed 0.25% higher. Data over the weekend showed China's foreign-exchange reserves fell to the lowest level in nearly six years last month. The People's Bank of China said that the world's largest stockpile of foreign currency fell $41.08 billion in December to $3.011 trillion, the lowest level since March 2011. The decline was smaller than the previous month's drop of $69.06 billion.

US stocks registered modest gains on Friday, 6 January 2017 as gains in the technology, industrials and healthcare sectors led shares higher. US nonfarm payrolls rose by 156,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, 6 January 2017. The number of jobs created fell from an upwardly revised 204,000 in November. The jobless rate edged up last month to 4.7% from 4.6%.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans on Friday, 6 January 2017 reportedly said that US economic conditions are likely to call for two interest-rate hikes in 2017, but a forecast of three hikes is not implausible. Evans said he was sticking with expectation of two rate hikes that he made in September even though things are now a little bit stronger than they were then.

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