Sensex, Nifty slip further; pharma shares decline

The market barometers slipped further in mid-morning trade, extending yesterday's steep losses. At 11:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 303.02 points or 0.97% at 30,819.87. The Nifty 50 index was down 78.75 points or 0.86% at 9,064.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was off 0.45% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.43%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On the BSE, 772 shares rose and 1075 shares fell. A total of 133 shares were unchanged. In the Nifty 50 index 19 shares advanced while 31 shares declined.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index fell 0.88% to 9,091.30, extending decline after a day's breather. The index rose 0.27% on Thursday. In the past one week, the Nifty Pharma index has fallen 2.32% while the benchmark Nifty 50 index has lost 1.96%.

Lupin (down 2.96%), Wockhardt (down 2.38%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 2.11%), Alkem Laboratories (down 1.59%), Strides Shasun (down 1.43%), IPCA Laboratories (down 1.41%), Abbott India (down 1.4%), Cadila Healthcare (down 1.26%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 1.26%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 0.73%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 0.72%), Divi's Laboratories (down 0.56%) and Piramal Enterprises (down 0.25%) declined.

Cipla gained 0.73% to Rs 574.10, ahead of the release after quarterly earnings today.

Unichem Laboratories surged 7.89% to Rs 137.50 after the company received the establishment inspection report (EIR) from the USFDA for its facility at Roha, Maharashtra. The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) conducted the inspection of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) facility from 17th to 21st February 2020. The EIR was received on 13 May 2020.

Hikal hit an upper ciruit of 5% at Rs 114.95 after supplier of API's and intermediates announced the successful development of Favipiravir active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and its intermediates. The API has demonstrated activity against influenza viruses and has been approved in Japan for the treatment of novel influenza virus infections. The company is in discussion with potential partners to supply the API and its intermediates.

Global Markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading little changed Friday, after data release showed China's industrial output bounced back in April.

China's industrial output rose 3.9% in April from a year earlier, improving from a 1.1% fall in March, according to data released Friday by the country's National Bureau of Statistics. This marks the first expansion in the metric for this year from China.

The US equity market finished volatile session higher on Thursday, 14 May 2020, snapping a two-sessions losing streak, led by a resurgence for some of the recent beaten-down stocks. However, market gains capped amid weak economic data and as of warning from the U.S. Federal Reserve's chairman for an extended period of weak economic growth. At closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.62%, to 23,625.34 while The S&P 500 added 1.15% to end at 2,852.50.

Labor Department report said initial jobless claims fell to 2.981 million, a decrease of 195,000 from the previous week's revised level of 3.176 million and marked the sixth straight weekly drop.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was disappointed with China over its failure to contain the coronavirus, and that the pandemic cast a pall over his U.S.-China trade deal. His comments stoked concerns about renewed U.S.-China trade tensions.

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