Key equity benchmarks held firm near day's high in early afternoon trade. Gains in HDFC twins and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) boosted the main stock indices. The Nifty continued hovering above 11,900 level.
At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 271.69 points or 0.69% at 39,706.41. The Nifty 50 index was up 88.05 points or 0.74% at 11,932.15.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.96%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.62%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1685 shares rose and 669 shares fell. A total of 141 shares were unchanged.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 69.435, compared with its close of 69.53 during the previous trading session.
HDFC Bank was up 1.33% at Rs 2,403.95. Housing finance major HDFC was up 1.86% at Rs 2,167.
Engineering and construction major L&T was up 2.56% at Rs 1583.10.
Most pharmaceutical shares rose. Cipla (up 2.13%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.14%), Alkem Laboratories (up 1.01%), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.99%), Strides Shasun (up 0.88%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.56%), Wockhardt (up 0.38%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 0.33%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.23%) and Piramal Enterprises (up 0.17%), edged higher.
Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 0.1%), IPCA Laboratories (down 0.62%) and Divi's Laboratories (down 7.88%), edged lower.
Drug major Lupin was down 2.21%. The company announced before trading hours today, 27 May 2019, that it has received a communication from the US FDA classifying the inspection conducted at its Goa facility between January 28 to February 8, 2019 as Official Action Indicated (OAI). The US FDA has stated that this facility may be subject to regulatory or administrative action and that it may withhold approval of any pending applications or supplements in which this facility is listed.
The inspection at the Goa facility had closed with two observations. Based on US FDA's Concept of Operations program, the company understands that the status of the facility is still under review. The company does not believe that this inspection classification will have an impact on disruption of supplies or the existing revenues from operations of this facility. The company is in the process of sending further updates of its corrective actions to the US FDA and is hopeful of a positive outcome.
On the political front, the President's Secretariat stated in a press communique that the President will administer the Oath of Office and Secrecy to the Prime Minister and other members of Union Council of Ministers on 30 May 2019 at 07:00 p.m. at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
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