Sensex, Nifty hit fresh intraday high

Key benchmark indices extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade. At 11:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 104.46 points or 0.32% at 33,027.58. The Nifty 50 index was up 29.70 points or 0.29% at 10,123.95. The Sensex was trading above the psychologically important 33,000 mark.

After opening lower, key benchmarks bounced back in morning trade and hit fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade. The Sensex rose 120.66 points, or 0.37% at the day's high of 33,043.78 in mid-morning trade. The index fell 112.26 points, or 0.34% at the day's low of 32,810.86 in early trade, in lowest level since 18 December 2017. The Nifty rose 37.25 points, or 0.37% at the day's high of 10,131.50 in mid-morning trade. The index fell 45.15 points, or 0.45% at the day's low of 10,049.10 in early trade, in lowest level since 18 December 2017.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.22%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.06%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1,179 shares fell, 1,107 shares rose and 127 shares were unchanged.

Most IT shares rose. Hexaware Technologies (up 2.25%), Tech Mahindra (up 2.09%), Persistent Systems (up 0.97%), Wipro (up 0.90%), Infosys (up 0.80%), TCS (up 0.67%) and HCL Technologies (up 0.40%), edged higher. MphasiS (down 0.19%), MindTree (down 1.05%) and Oracle Financial Services Software (down 1.5%), edged lower.

Pharmaceutical shares were mixed. Strides Shasun (up 1.47%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 0.82%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.75%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 0.72%), Divi's Laboratories (up 0.67%), IPCA Laboratories (up 0.64%), Lupin (up 0.61%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 0.57%), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.52%) and Wockhardt (up 0.42%), edged higher. Piramal Enterprises (down 0.69%), Alkem Laboratories (down 0.85%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 1.01%) and Cipla (down 2.39%), edged lower.

MMTC lost 4.08% after the company's board of directors approved the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:2 i.e. one bonus share for every two equity shares. The announcement was made before market hours today, 20 March 2018. Shares of MMTC had seen a strong rally in anticipation of liberal bonus issue.

Overseas, Asian shares were mixed as investors braced for new Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's first policy meeting starting later in the day. Investors also have been worrying this month about a potential global trade war, triggered by the Trump administration moving ahead with tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.

US stocks finished sharply lower Monday as concerns about Facebook Inc.'s management of user data sparked a selloff in technology shares. Investors also lightened their positions ahead of the Fed's policy meeting.

The US Federal Reserve's two-day monetary policy meeting is scheduled on March 20-21. Strengthening labor market and a steady increase in price pressures could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in upcoming meeting. The US central bank has forecast three rate increases for this year, but there are also expectations that it will raise its projection to four hikes at the meeting.

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