Strong market breadth

The market extended gains in mid-morning trade amid strong buying in index pivotals. At 11:19 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 361.20 points or 1.05% at 34,660.67. The Nifty 50 index was up 128.50 points or 1.25% at 10,429.55.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 3.09%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 2.65%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1745 shares rose and 453 shares fell. A total of 93 shares were unchanged.

Pharmaceuticals shares were in demand. Piramal Enterprises (up 7.66%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 5.66%), Wockhardt (up 2.78%), Divi's Laboratories (up 2.40%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 1.41%), Lupin (up 1.39%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.37%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 1.34%), Cadila Healthcare (up 1.29%), Strides Shasun (up 1.17%), IPCA Laboratories (up 0.79%), Alkem Laboratories (up 0.75%), Cipla (up 0.72%) and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 0.30%), edged higher.

IT shares were mixed. Hexaware Technologies (up 2.8%), MphasiS (up 2.61%), Tech Mahindra (up 1.79%), MindTree (up 1.44%), Oracle Financial Services Software (up 1.02%) and Persistent Systems (up 0.21%), edged higher. TCS (down 0.05%), Wipro (down 0.41%), Infosys (down 1.16%) and HCL Technologies (down 1.54%), edged lower.

On the macro front, based on an assessment of prevailing liquidity conditions and also of the durable liquidity needs going forward, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to conduct purchase of the following Government securities under Open Market Operations for an aggregate amount of Rs 12000 crore on 11 October 2018 through multi-security auction using the multiple price method.

Overseas, Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday after a mixed finish on Wall Street overnight. US stocks closed mostly lower Tuesday after a volatile session as investors continued to fret over the implication of higher bond yields on equities. The Nasdaq, however, snapped a three-day losing streak in line with a rebound in technology shares.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he did not like the Federal Reserve's decision to continue hiking interest rates. The US central bank last raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point in September, while raising its expectations for economic growth for this year and next.

On the US data front, the National Federation of Independent Business small-business optimism index fell 0.9 point in September, falling from a 45-year high to a seasonally adjusted level of 108.8.

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