Pharma, oil & gas stocks in demand

Stocks held firm in mid-morning trade. At 11:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 169.15 points or 0.54% at 31,666.53. The Nifty 50 index was up 53.10 points or 0.54% at 9,912.60. Today's gains were led by index heavyweights Reliance Industries, ITC and HDFC. Stocks from pharma and oil & gas sectors were in demand. The key event is the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy meeting today, 4 October 2017.

Domestic stocks reversed initial gains and were trading with small losses in early trade. After an initial hiccup in early trade, stocks nudged higher and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.55%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.83%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1,490 shares rose and 792 shares fell. A total of 93 shares were unchanged.

Overseas, Japanese and Hong Kong share markets led Asian stocks higher in holiday-thinned trading as investors took their lead from Wall Street's latest advance into record territory. Stock markets were closed in mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan for holidays. In US, the three major stock indices on Wall Street closed at record highs yesterday, 3 October 2017 driven by expectations of strong global growth.

Back home, oil & gas stocks gained. Shares of oil exploration and production (E&P) companies edged higher. Reliance Industries (up 1.61%) and ONGC (up 0.76%) edged higher. Oil India (down 0.42%) fell.

Gas utility stocks saw mixed trend. Indraprastha Gas (down 1.3%) and Gujarat State Petronet (down 0.66%) declined. Gujarat Gas (up 1.09%) and GAIL (India) (up 0.83%) rose.

Shares of public sector oil marketing companies edged higher after the government reduced basic excise duty rate on both branded and unbranded petrol and diesel by Rs 2 per litre. HPCL (up 2.1%), IOCL (up 0.73%) and BPCL (up 0.78%) edged higher.

To cushion the impact of rising international prices of crude petroleum oil and petrol and diesel on retail sale prices of petrol and diesel, the government has reduced basic excise duty rate on both branded and unbranded petrol and diesel by Rs 2 per litre with effect from 4 October 2017.

The revenue loss on account of these reductions in excise duty is about Rs 26000 crore in a full year, and about Rs 13000 crore during the remaining part of the current financial year, a statement released by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said.

Pharma shares gained. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 3.07%), Cadila Healthcare (up 1.8%), Cipla (up 0.98%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.52%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 1.08%), Lupin (up 1.19%), Alkem Laboratories (up 0.32%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 1.65%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 1.65%) and Wockhardt (up 2.5%) gained.

Greaves Cotton rose 1.46% after the company said it partnered with Altigreen Propulsion Labs to deliver clean energy solutions. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 3 October 2017.

Greaves Cotton announced a strategic partnership with US and Bengaluru based start-up Altigreen Propulsion Labs. The partnership aims to provide a range of clean energy powertrain solutions for the 3-wheeler and micro 4-wheeler commercial vehicles. This alliance will be kick-started with the launch of Altigreen's HyPixi a low cost partial electrification solution for retro-fitment on current fossil-fuel based vehicles. The solution will help deliver significantly improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions, hence providing un-matched total cost of ownership to the last mile transportation segment.

Ahluwalia Contracts (India) rose 1.51% after the company said it has bagged construction and re-development orders worth Rs 555.77 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 3 October 2017.

On the macro front, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) bimonthly monetary policy decision is slated at 14:30 IST today, 4 October 2017. The central bank had cut policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 6% after its last monetary policy meeting in August, reducing the key policy rates for the first time in this fiscal year.

India's annual infrastructure output grew 4.9% in August compared with a revised 2.6% year-on-year growth in July, government data released after market hours yesterday, 3 October 2017 showed. Eight infrastructure sectors include coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, electricity, steel, cement, and fertiliser, comprising 40.27% weight in index of industrial production.

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