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Markets edged higher in the morning session this Thursday on back of buying witnessed in pharmaceutical stocks, however, trading was volatile and range-bound ahead of the derivative contract expiry for September series today.
At 10:40AM, the 30-share Sensex gained 27 points at 19,883 and the 50-share Nifty rose 9 points at 5883 levels.
Risk appetite was also weak on concerns over political dysfunction in US as lawmakers struggled to keep the government offices running ahead of next month’s budget default.
Last week, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to keep the federal government running, but withheld funding for the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, global news report suggests.
The broader markets traded higher with mid-caps and small-caps adding 0.2-0.5 per cent on the BSE.
The market breadth was positive. Out of 1,571 stocks traded, 850 stocks advanced while 613 stocks declined on the BSE.
FII flows
Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 3.82 billion on Wednesday, exchange data shows. Domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 4.73 billion.
RUPEE
The rupee gained ground today due to dollar sale by custodian banks. However, weakening concerns remain due to month-end dollar demand from importers.
At 10:40AM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 62.26 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 62.44 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asian stocks fell for a third day, trimming the biggest monthly advance on the regional benchmark index since January 2012, as industrial and health care companies retreated.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.3% to 14,670, Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.5% at 3,192, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.5% to 23,083 while China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 1.2% to 2,171.
STOCK MOVERS
Domestically, the key sectoral losers were oil & gas, realty, PSU indices while auto, healthcare, banks, capital goods led gains on the BSE.
The laggards were Jindal Steel declined 2.2%, NTPC dropped 1.7%, ONGC was down 1.3% while SBI fell 0.8% on the BSE.
The gainers were BHEL rising 3.2%, Sun Pharma rose 2.7%, HDFC gained 2% while Tata Steel added 1.4% on the BSE.
