Market trades with decent gains; pharma stocks in demand

The market traded with decent gains in early afternoon trade. Pharmaceuticals stocks were in demand due to bargain hunting. The Nifty 50 continued to trade below 9300 mark.

At 11:31 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 14.68 points or 0.05% at 31,375.39. The Nifty 50 index was up 13.1 points or 0.14% at 9,210.50.

The broader market was mixed. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.25% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.5%.

The market breadth turned positive. On the BSE, 805 shares rose and 716 shares fell. A total of 67 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 35 stocks advanced while 15 stocks declined.

Sentiment improved after US index futures climbed. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 802 points, implying a strong opening in the US market on Tuesday.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 2.47% to 60.335. The Nifty February 2020 futures were trading at 9,217.20, a discount of 69.3 points compared with the spot at 9,286.50.

On the options front, the Nifty option chain for 26 March 2020 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 22.47 lakh contracts at the 12,000 strike price. Maximum call writing was witnessed at 9000 strike price, which added 99,525 contracts.

Maximum put OI of 23.97 lakh contracts was seen at 9,000 strike price. Put writing was observed at 8,100 strike price which added 10.97 lakh contracts. Put unwinding was seen at 10,000 strike price which shed 73,125 contracts.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index jumped 3.58% to 7,208.55 rebounding from yesterday's 4.25% decline.

Aurobindo Pharma (up 8.61%), Sun Pharmaceuticals (up 5.73%), Piramal Enterprises (up 4.01%), Lupin (up 4.18%), Cipla (up 3.7%), Divi's Laboratories (up 2.77%), Cadila Healthcare (up 2.27%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.33%) and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.67%) were top gainers pharmaceutical space.

Alembic Pharmaceuticals, in an exchange filing made during market hours today, informed about the receipt of EIR from USFDA for its Karakhadi (Gujarat)-based API facility. The inspection was carried out from 13 January 2020 to 17 January, 2020. Shares of Alembic Pharmaceuticals were trading 0.08% higher at Rs 531.50

Stocks in Spotlight:

Yes Bank was up 58.09%. The bank will hold a press conference at 15:45 IST today.

ONGC rose 1.08% to Rs 60.80 after the company's board approved an interim dividend of Rs 5 per shares at the meeting held on Monday, 16 March 2020. The record date for dividend is 24 March 2020.

Sadbhav Engineering on Monday (16 March 2020) said its material subsidiary, Sadbhav Infrastructure Project (SIPL), has received Rs 457.70 crore in the second tranche of payment in connection with the sale of seven road projects to IndInfravit Trust. Shares of Sadbhav Engineering declined 4.95% to Rs 43.25.

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