Benchmarks manage to keep their head above water in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks are trading slightly in green ahead of GDP data to be announced later in the day. However, gains remained capped as investor remained wary ahead of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review tomorrow and continuing fund outflows by foreign investors. Meanwhile, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to the Congress leadership, the government has expressed hope that the GST Bill will be passed in Parliament and implemented soon. A weak trend in other Asian markets as investors await key US jobs figures and a European Central Bank meeting later this week, also hit the domestic sentiment.

Back home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables, auto and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while telecom, energy, basic materials remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 1525 shares on the gaining side against 862 shares on the losing side while 199 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26163.08, up by 34.88 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 26096.09 and 26231.06. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.30%, while Small cap index up by 0.83%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.56%, Auto up by 1.12%, Capital Goods up by 0.87%, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services up by 0.86% and Industrials up by 0.83%, while Telecom down by 0.10%, Energy down by 0.35%, Basic Materials down by 0.11% and TECk down by 0.10% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 2.13%, Tata Motors up by 2.00%, ICICI Bank up by 1.69%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.33% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.24%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.51%, Sun Pharma down by 1.32%, HDFC down by 1.19%, Coal India down by 0.89% and Lupin down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to help Indian drug makers to save cost on upgrading to international standards, India is nudging various semi-regulated markets like Myanmar and Kenya to accept its drug standards, instead of British Pharmacopoeia (BP) or the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP). Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) Director General PV Appaji has said that “We are in talks with various semi-regulated markets in ASEAN region, Africa and SAARC countries to accept Indian Pharmacopoeia instead of BP or USP”. The move will help many Indian drug makers, which are solely following IP, to save significantly on time, packaging and other costs needed to adopt either BP or USP.

Extending its support to this initiative, Pharmexcil has invited 10-15 drug regulatory heads from various countries to participate in the Indian Pharmaceutical Congress at Mysore next month. Apart from this the council is already in talks with representatives from Ghana, Kenya and Myanmar regarding the issue and has stated them that Indian drug standards are also at par with the USP or BP. It also added that if they accept, both Indian drug industry as well as these countries would be beneficial and these markets would be able to get drugs from the stock meant for Indian market, leading to saving in terms of cost and time and also they could avail of certain life saving drugs well in time.

Pharmacopoeia is a set of standards and quality specifications for ingredients, preparation and dosage forms of medicines manufactured, sold, consumed and exported in a country. Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) is an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which sets standards for all drugs that are manufactured, sold and consumed in India. Currently, Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) is only followed in the Indian market. Last fiscal, India exported drugs worth over $15 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7947.70, up by 5.00 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 7927.40 and 7963.85. There were 27 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Auto up by 2.09%, Tata Motors up by 1.98%, Tata Power up by 1.58%, ICICI Bank up by 1.50% and Indusind Bank up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 2.22%, Cairn India down by 1.90%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.75%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.63% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.38% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 136.47 points or 0.69% to 19,747.47, Taiwan Weighted declined 77.79 points or 0.93% to 8,320.61, Jakarta Composite shed 37.54 points or 0.82% to 4,523.02, KOSPI Index tumbled 37.02 points or 1.82% to 1,991.97 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 15.56 points or 0.92% to 1,667.03.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite rose 5.07 points or 0.15% to 3,441.37 and Hang Seng was up by 81.03 points or 0.37% to 22,149.35.