Sensex, Nifty hit fresh intraday high

Buying gathered steam as key benchmark indices extended intraday gains and hit fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade. At 11:17 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 180.43 points or 0.60% at 30,482.07. The Nifty 50 index was up 57.40 points or 0.61% at 9,417.95. Positive leads from Asian markets and overnight gains on the Wall Street boosted investors sentiment. Most pharmaceuticals shares declined. Telecom shares were in demand.

The Sensex rose 201.75 points, or 0.67% at the day's high of 30,503.39 in mid-morning trade. The index rose 50.62 points, or 0.17% at the day's low of 30,352.26 in early trade. The Nifty rose 65.10 points, or 0.70% at the day's high of 9,425.65 in mid-morning trade. The index rose 18.65 points, or 0.20% at the day's low of 9,379.20 in early trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.72%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.09%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The broad market depicted strength. There were more than two gainers against every loser on BSE. 1,567 shares rose and 712 shares fell. A total of 133 shares were unchanged.

Most pharmaceuticals shares declined. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 2.52%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 2.29%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 2.21%), Cadila Healthcare (down 1.92%), Divi's Laboratories (down 1.88%), Wockhardt (down 1.27%), Piramal Enterprises (down 0.27%) and Aurobindo Pharma (down 0.17%), edged lower. Alkem Laboratories (up 0.08%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 0.09%), IPCA Laboratories (up 0.77%) and Strides Shasun (up 2.39%), edged higher.

Drug major Cipla was down 0.98%. The company will announce Q4 results today, 25 May 2017.

Drug major Lupin lost 6.75% on reports that a foreign brokerage has downgraded the stock to outperform from buy earlier and has also lowered its target price to Rs 1,350 from Rs 1,760 earlier. According to reports, the global brokerage stated that Lupin expects a challenging FY 2018 due to competitive/regulatory pressures in the US and Japan. US concerns are on account of continued customer consolidation, incremental competition in top products, and slower-than-expected Gavis ramp-up, it said. The brokerage further added that a few critical FY 2019 launches of the company have been pushed out to FY 2020.

Shares of Lupin fell 1.71% to settle at Rs 1,227.65 yesterday, 24 May 2017 after the company announced weak Q4 earnings during market hours on that day. Lupin's consolidated net profit fell 49.16% to Rs 380.21 crore on 1.33% growth in total revenue from operations to Rs 4253.30 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016.

Telecom shares were in demand. Bharti Airtel (up 1.76%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 1.67%), Reliance Communications (up 1.55%), Idea Cellular (up 1.14%) and MTNL (up 0.23%), edged higher.

Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was up 0.43%.

GVK Power & Infrastructure tumbled 6.12% after the company reported net loss of Rs 205.85 crore in Q4 March 2017 higher than net loss of Rs 105.59 crore in Q4 March 2016. Total income rose 49.85% to Rs 25.85 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 24 May 2017.

Overseas, Asian shares rose after the US Federal Reserve signalled a cautious approach to future rate hikes and the reduction of its $4.5 trillion of bond holdings. Investors also looked ahead to an OPEC gathering widely expected to extend output cuts.

US stocks closed higher for a fifth-straight day yesterday, 24 May 2017, buoyed by the minutes of the Federal Reserve's May meeting. The S&P 500 rose 5.97 points, or 0.3%, to close at 2,404.39. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose for a fifth straight day, gaining 74.51 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 21,012.42, just 0.5% below its record close set on 1 March 2017. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 24.31 points, or 0.4%, to end at 6,163.02.

Minutes from the Fed's last policy meeting showed policymakers agreed they should hold off on raising interest rates until it was clear a recent US economic slowdown was temporary. The minutes also showed that policymakers favored a gradual reduction in its massive balance sheet. Fed staff proposed that the central bank set a cap on the amount of bonds that would be allowed to run off each month, initially setting it at a low level and raising it every three months.

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