Pharma shares advance

Stocks alternately swung between positive and negative zone in a small range in morning trade. At 10:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 14.59 points or 0.04% at 35,614.41. The Nifty 50 index was up 14.60 points or 0.14% at 10,822.65. Shares of index heavyweight Reliance Industries gained. Pharma shares gained. Cement stocks saw mixed trend.

A bout of volatility was seen in early trade as the key benchmark indices reversed initial losses.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.16%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.26%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1080 shares rose and 806 shares fell. A total of 117 shares were unchanged.

Overseas, most Asian stocks were trading on a mixed note. The Bank of Japan meets today, 15 June 2018 with no change to policy expected. US stock-market indexes closed mostly higher yesterday, 14 June 2018 on gains by big technology and media companies, outweighing laggard financial and industrial shares.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump reportedly approved tariffs on about $50 billion of Chinese goods, as the US ratchets up its trade fight with Beijing over China's alleged pressure on US firms to transfer technology to Chinese partners. It wasn't clear when the tariffs would go into effect.

In Europe, the European Central Bank (ECB) said it would phase out some of its easy-money policies on the back of an improving economic picture in Europe. On interest rates, the ECB said rates will remain at their present all-time lows at least through the summer of 2019.

The ECB said it would continue its program of buying 30 billion euros a month of bonds through September, as planned. The purchase amount will then be reduced in October to 15 billion euros a month and run through the end of December. The purchases will end in December.

Back home, index heavyweight Reliance Industries rose 1.25% to Rs 1,020.10

Pharma shares gained. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 1.75%), Cipla (up 2.81%), Cadila Healthcare (up 1.15%), Lupin (up 1.76%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 2.1%), Alkem Laboratories (down 0.27%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 0.24%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 1.41%) and Wockhardt (up 1.62%) rose.

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories gained 3.26% after the company announced that it has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and is launching Buprenorphine and Naloxone Sublingual Film, 2 mg/0.5 mg, 4 mg/1 mg, 8 mg/2 mg, and 12 mg/3 mg, a therapeutic equivalent generic version of Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone) sublingual film, in the United States market. The announcement was made before market hours today, 15 June 2018.

Buprenorphine and naloxone are used to treat adults with opioid dependence/addiction. The Suboxone brand had US sales of approximately $1.86 billion MAT for the most recent twelve months ending in April 2018 according to IMS Health.

Cement stocks saw mixed trend. Ambuja Cements (up 0.66%) and UltraTech Cement (up 0.33%) rose. ACC (down 0.16%) and Shree Cement (down 0.38%) fell.

Grasim Industries was off 0.87%. Grasim has exposure to the cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

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