Benchmarks add gains; Sensex surpasses 27,000 mark

Indian equity benchmarks added gains and continued to trade in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Traders were seen piling positions in Consumer Durables, FMCG and Auto while selling was witnessed in Metal, Infra and TECK sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Kochi-based Kitex Garments was trading firm after local brokerage firm initiated coverage with a Buy recommendation on the stock. Punjab National Bank was trading in green after the bank’s board approved 5-for-1 stock split. Hotel Leela Ventures was trading under pressure after it defaulted on its debt payment. The Mumbai-headquartered luxury hotel chain sought more time to pay dues to Life Insurance Corporation of India.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets too traded on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above psychological 8,100 and 27,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1593:1300 while 100 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27122.74, up by 32.32 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 26918.93 and 27154.57. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.26%, while Small cap index up by 0.75%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 3.42%, FMCG up by 1.26%, Auto up by 1.02%, Oil & Gas up by 0.47%, PSU up by 0.22% while, Metal down by 1.33%, Infra down by 0.90%, TECK down by 0.65%, IT down by 0.63%, Realty down by 0.63% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.61%, ITC up by 2.36%, ONGC up by 2.28%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.32% and ICICI Bank up by 1.12%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.68%, BHEL down by 2.23%, Tata Steel down by 1.92%, Hindalco down by 1.37% and Infosys down by 1.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in yet another negative development for pharma companies, the government has capped the prices of 36 drugs, including major anti-infectives, gastro drugs and vaccines. These medicines add to the list of ‘348’ drugs that are deemed as ‘essential’ and therefore subject to price caps and cover up-to 30% of the total drugs sold in the country. Both, global and Indian pharmaceutical industries have been hit by the wide-ranging government-imposed price-reduction over the past year.

Pharma companies selling in India have been the worst hit as the prices in the country are already lowest in the world. Indian drugmakers, including Cipla, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Cadila Healthcare are among the companies that will be affected by the latest move. Further, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), reportedly also is contemplating upon the idea of drawing up a list of mass consumption, essential life-saving drugs which could be included in the essential medicines list. These recommendations are expected to make way to the health ministry by mid-October.

Just few days back, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) brought prices of another 43 essential medicines to treat diseases like tuberculosis or heart ailments under a control regime, even though the Delhi High Court asked the Centre and the pharmaceutical companies to resolve the drug pricing issue. Thus, bringing incremental number of medicines under the price control regime has resulted into growing friction between the Government and the pharmaceutical industry, resulting in litigation.

Back in July NPPA had brought prices of over 100 non-scheduled drugs under price control as per paragraph 19 of Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO). Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India’s (OPPI) had opposed the move to fix caps on the prices of over 100 drugs which were non-scheduled formulations and lie outside the scope of National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8121.65, up by 0.20 points or 0.00% after trading in a range of 8064.80 and 8127.70. There were 18 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 3.79%, ONGC up by 2.86%, ITC up by 2.55%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.46% and Jindal Steel & Power up by 1.14%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.84%, Cipla down by 2.60%, DLF down by 2.59%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.43% and IDFC down by 2.16% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 350.67 points or 1.44% to 23,955.49, Nikkei 225 decreased 115.27 points or 0.71% to 16,205.90, Taiwan Weighted decreased 105.8 points or 1.14% to 9,134.65, Shanghai Composite decreased 39.59 points or 1.7% to 2,289.87, KOSPI Index decreased 14.55 points or 0.71% to 2,039.27, Jakarta Composite decreased 7.61 points or 0.15% to 5,219.97, Straits Times decreased 6.83 points or 0.21% to 3,298.22 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 3.87 points or 0.21% to 1,845.62.

The European markets were too trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 43.3 points or 0.63% to 6,794.62, Germany’s DAX decreased 33.61 points or 0.34% to 9,765.65 and France’s CAC decreased 17.63 points or 0.4% to 4,443.59.