Markets trading in tight band; Sensex up 0.28%

Indian equity markets continued trading positive but in a narrow range in the late morning session, following its Asian peers. The BSE Sensex was up 0.28%, while Nifty gained 0.23%. In currency markets, Indian rupee fell further against the American Currency on Monday on the back of month end dollar demand from the importers. Moreover, decline in inflows, because of the holiday season in the US also weighing on the markets. Investors remained somewhat cautious because of concerns about the near term outlook for the domestic as well as global economies. On sectoral front information technology stocks remained steady, holding most of their early gains. Pharma stocks were seeing some hectic activity. Select realty, automobile and metal stocks were trading firm. Bank, capital goods and oil stocks were a bit subdued amid lackluster trades. In global markets, most Asian shares were trading in green, with prices capped by nervousness about the risk of the United States failing to avert a fiscal crisis. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,312 shares on the gaining side against 1,086 shares on the losing side while 118 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19296.21 up by 54.21 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 19347.64 and 19261.66. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.40% and Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, TECk up by 1.07%, IT up by 1.06%, Health Care up by 0.88%, Realty up by 0.75% and Auto up by 0.58%. While, Oil & Gas down by 0.38%, Capital Goods down by 0.16% and Bankex down by 0.09% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.88%, Tata Motors up by 1.47%, Infosys up by 1.33%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.27% and Wipro up by 1.15%. On the flip side, ONGC was down by 1.86%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.38%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 1.25%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.64% and BHEL was down by 0.55% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government estimates foresee the Indian pharma sector growing 5-fold to reach Rs 5 lakh crore in the next seven years. Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) Joint Secretary A J V Prasad said that, “the industry will grow from its current level of Rs. 1 lakh crore to Rs. 5 lakh crore by 2020, becoming globally competitive and building India as a global provider of quality medicines at reasonable prices.” In last 10 years, the sector has grown over 3-fold to reach Rs 1,19,075.7 crore.

To encourage production of drugs by indigenous industries, the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) has recommended capacity building of private sector to meet WHO-GMP standards and other international manufacturing standards, enabling the Indian pharmaceutical industry to develop competence in advanced areas of drug manufacturing like dedicated research facility in bulk drugs, improving processes of manufacturing generics and APIs.

During the period 2010- 11, based on CMIE data, the quick estimates for Gross Domestic product (GDP) is Rs 76,74,148 crore and the share of the pharma industry is 1.55 percent. Moreover, at present, Indian pharmaceutical industry is the third largest in terms of volume, and 13th in terms of value with a growth of14 percent per annum.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,861.40 up by 13.70 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 5,871.90 and 5,848.30. There were 34 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index and one remained unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 1.92%, BPCL up by 1.80%, Tata Motors up by 1.52%, HUL up by 1.26% and DLF up by 1.25%.

On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.95%, Ultra Cement down by 1.44%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.40%, JP Associates down by 1.40% and Jindal Steel down by 1.35%, were the major losers on the index.

Most Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite surged 0.28%, Hang Seng rose 0.16%, Straits Times was up by 0.16% and KOSPI Composite moved up 0.07%.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite declined 0.17% and Taiwan Weighted was down 0.06%.

Japanese and Indonesian markets remain closed on Monday for public holidays.