Sensex little changed; pharma stocks rise

By Tanvi Mehta

(Reuters) - Indian indexes were largely flat on Thursday as some company results including from Tech Mahindra Ltd disappointed investors, but gains in pharmaceutical shares lent some support.

Drug makers led by Divi's Laboratories Ltd staged a rally after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted the import alert on one of the company's production plants.

Indian markets had hit record highs in the previous session, on continued optimism after the government's recent decision to inject more funds into state-run lenders.

"We've started on slightly uncertain footing, and yesterday's momentum is missing," said Anand James, chief market strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

"We need further cues to keep pushing indexes higher."

The broader NSE index was down 0.09 percent at 10,430.60 as of 0613 GMT, after rising marginally to hit a record high in early trade.

The benchmark BSE index was 0.06 percent lower at 33,581.24.

Among decliners, Tech Mahindra Ltd and JSW Energy Ltd fell after their Sept-quarter earnings report failed to please investors. Tech Mahindra fell as much as 5.7 percent while JSW Energy dropped as much as 4.7 percent.

However, the Nifty Pharma index rose as much as 3.6 percent to its highest since July 24, boosted by Divi's Labs. The U.S. health regulator said it would lift the import alert on the company's at Visakhapatnam unit in southern India and will close the warning letter it issued earlier.

Shares of Divi's Laboratories surged as much as 21 percent to their highest since Dec. 22, 2016.

State-run lenders continued their uptrend with the Nifty PSU bank index rising 0.9 percent. IDBI Bank Ltd and Indian Bank gained over 3 percent each.

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)