Sensex falls 328 pts; pharma shares slide for 2nd day

The headline equity benchmarks traded with moderate losses in early afternoon trade as the markets experienced volatility. The Nifty traded below the 23,650 mark after hitting the day's high of 23,736.50 in early trade. Pharma shares extended losses for two consecutive trading sessions.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 328.07 points or 0.43% to 77,689.26. The Nifty 50 index fell 64.30 points or 0.27% to 23,604.35.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.03% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.63%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,308 shares rose and 2,484 shares fell. A total of 150 shares were unchanged.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 0.63% to 13.67. The Nifty 27 March 2025 futures were trading at 23,639.95, at a premium of 35.6 points as compared with the spot at 23,604.35.

The Nifty option chain for the 27 March 2025 expiry showed a maximum call OI of 175 lakh contracts at the 24,000 strike price. Maximum put OI of 132 lakh contracts was seen at 23,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index shed 0.76% to 21,378.55. The index declined 1.80% in the two consecutive trading sessions.

Ajanta Pharma (down 2.37%), Granules India (down 1.71%), Dr Reddys Laboratories (down 1.64%), Cipla (down 1.63%), J B Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (down 1.58%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 1.33%), Torrent Pharmaceuticals (down 1.16%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 1.01%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 0.95%), and Alkem Laboratories (down 0.86%) declined.

On the other hand, Lupin (up 0.5%), ,Biocon (up 0.45%), and Gland Pharma (up 0.44%) added.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Atishay surged 4.38% after it secured a new work order worth Rs 29.60 lakhs for providing cloud hosting services from the Directorate of Cooperation, Himachal Pradesh.

Welspun Enterprises rose 0.23%. The company informed that its material subsidiary, Welspun Michigan Engineers (WMEL), along with its joint venture with Aaradhyaa & Co (WMEL-ANC JV), has bagged an order worth Rs 328.12 crore from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) shed 0.16%. The company announced that its hydrocarbon business, L&T Energy Hydrocarbon (LTEH), has secured its largest-ever ultra-mega offshore contract from QatarEnergy LNG for the North Field Production Sustainability Offshore Compression Project.

Ultracab (India) rose 0.36%. The company announced that it has received a significant contract worth Rs 9.70 crore from Adani Electricity Mumbai for the supply of LT PVC cables.

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