Sensex, Nifty hit fresh intraday low; metal shares advance

The market reversed trend and hit fresh intraday low in mid-morning trade. At 11:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 48.97 points or 0.14% at 36,057.53. The Nifty 50 index was down 10.70 points or 0.10% at 10,810.90. Metal shares rose across the board.

The indices opened higher and hit fresh intraday high in early deals. Indices sharply pared gains in morning trade. The market reversed trend and hit fresh intraday low in mid-morning trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.24%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.11%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was almost even. On BSE, 1020 shares rose and 1052 shares fell. A total of 135 shares were unchanged.

Metal shares were in demand. Hindustan Zinc (up 0.15%), National Aluminium Company (up 0.40%), Tata Steel (up 0.42%), Steel Authority of India (up 0.57%), Hindustan Copper (up 0.81%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 1.07%), JSW Steel (up 1.07%), NMDC (up 1.10%), Vedanta (up 1.10%) and Hindalco Industries (up 1.67%), edged higher.

Most pharmaceuticals shares declined. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 1.85%), Strides Shasun (down 1.01%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 0.92%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.78%), Lupin (down 0.71%), Alkem Laboratories (down 0.49%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 0.48%), Wockhardt (down 0.43%) and Cadila Healthcare (down 0.4%), edged lower. Piramal Enterprises (up 0.04%), Cipla (up 0.57%), Divi's Laboratories (up 0.68%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 0.7%) and IPCA Laboratories (up 1.26%), edged higher.

Himachal Futuristic Communications (HFCL) rose 3.67% after the company announced that it has won orders of Rs 502.73 crore for supply of optical fibre cables from Larsen & Toubro and a consortium led by ITI. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 10 January 2019.

HFCL announced that it has won orders of Rs 502.73 crore for supply of optical fibre cables (OFC) from Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and a consortium led by ITI. Order from L&T amounts to Rs 147.73 crore for supply of 16,882 KM OFC which shall be used by L&T for creating OFC Network infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh under BharatNet Phase-11 Project. Another order has been received from ITI led consortium valued at Rs 355 crore for supply of 37,798 KM OFC to be deployed by them in Maharashtra under BharatNet Phase-11 Project.

Praj Industries gained 7.81% after the company announced ground-breaking of integrated demo plant of Compressed bio-Gas (CBG). The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 10 January 2019.

The company unveiled its roadmap for commercialization of CBG technology and reaffirmed its readiness by way of required infrastructure to execute multiple CBG plants with advanced technology and designs. CBG is a complementary renewable transportation fuel to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Praj's CBG technology is a major step in that direction. Praj's demo plant is first of its kind integrated CBG plant in the country. This plant will test, improve and optimise production of CBG from different feedstock such as biomass, press mud, variety of agri waste, paper mill pith etc. In the meanwhile for the conventional 1G ethanol business, Praj reported enhanced traction from their existing and potential customers on the back of additional feedstocks, attractive ethanol pricing and interest subsidies on loans.

Overseas, Asian stocks were trading higher on Friday, amid improved investor sentiment following overnight gains on Wall Street.

US stock markets logged a fifth straight advance on Thursday, representing the longest such win streaks for the Dow and S&P 500 of the past few months. Investors responded to comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. At the Economic Club of Washington, Powell reiterated the views of other policymakers that the Fed would be patient about interest rate hikes. He added that the Fed's balance sheet would be "substantially smaller".

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