Barometers trade with modest gains, pharma shares advance

The key equity indices continued to trade with substantial gains in mid-morning trade. The Nifty hovered above the 22,000 level. Pharma shares gained after declining in the last two trading sessions.

At 11:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 602.88 points or 0.83% to 73,171.33. The Nifty 50 index added 148.95 points or 0.68% to 22,043.50.

The benchmarks, Nifty50 and Sensex hit a fresh all-time high of 22,081.95 and 73,288.78 respectively.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.33% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.11%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,987 shares rose and 1,801 shares fell. A total of 144 shares were unchanged.

Results Today:

Jio Financial Services (up 3.43%), Angel One (up 0.36%), Fedbank Financial Services (down 0.32%), Kesoram Industries (up 1.22%), Metalyst Forgings (down 1.89%), Nelco (up 2.92%), PCBL (up 1.45%), Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (down 2.71%), Suraj Estate Developers (down 1.70%), Brightcom Group (down 3.29%), Choice International (up 2.09%), Digicontent (up 0.78%), Excel Realty N Infra (up 2.04%), and Jai Balaji Industries (up 3.49%) will announce their quarterly earnings later in the day.

Economy:

India`s retail inflation edged marginally in December on higher food prices. Inflation, measured by the annual change in the consumer price index (CPI), rose to a four-month high of 5.69% in December from 5.55% in November and it was 5.72% in December 2022.

Meanwhile, India`s Index for Industrial Production (IIP) growth declined to 2.4% in November from 11.7% in October.

Separately, after rising for four consecutive weeks, India�s foreign exchange (forex) reserves declined sharply by $5.89 billion to $617.3 billion during the week ended January 5, according to the latest RBI data.

So far this fiscal, the reserves have increased $55.72 billion. In the previous reporting week ended December 29, the reserves rose $2.759 billion to $623.2 billion, the highest so far this fiscal. In the week before that, the reserves increased $4.471 billion to $620.441.

Gold reserves also declined $839 million to $47.48 billion during the reporting week, while the special drawing rights (SDRs) were down $67 million to $18.29 billion, the RBI said. The country�s reserve position with the IMF also declined $26 million to $48.66 billion in the reporting week.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index added 1.20% to 17,555.15. The index was down 0.31% in last two consecutive trading sessions.

Aurobindo Pharma (up 4.75%), Granules India (up 4.14%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 3.41%), Biocon (up 2.5%) and Laurus Labs (up 2.09%), Zydus Lifesciences (up 1.96%), Abbott India (up 1.7%), Dr Reddys Laboratories (up 1.51%), Divis Laboratories (up 1.22%) and Lupin (up 1.01%).

On the other hand, Alkem Laboratories (down 0.67%), Natco Pharma (down 0.48%) and Gland Pharma (down 0.42%) edge lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Alkem Laboratories shed 0.84%. The company informed there has been a cyber security incident that compromised the business email IDs of certain employees at one of the company�s subsidiaries.

Just Dial advanced 2.70% after the company recorded 22.3% increase in net profit to Rs 92 crore on a 19.7% rise in operating revenues to Rs 265 crore in Q3 FY24 over Q3 FY23.

Anand Rathi Wealth declined 2.72%. The company has reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 58 crore for Q3 FY24, an increase of 34% compared to the PAT figure of Rs 43.2 crore recorded in Q3 FY23. Total revenue for the period under review rose by 34% YoY to Rs 187 crore.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks traded mixed on Monday, with Chinese shares under pressure after the People�s Bank unexpectedly kept lending rates on hold, while outperformance in Japanese markets continued.

Investors will be closely watching China�s fourth-quarter gross domestic numbers due on Wednesday, while Japan will release inflation figures for December on Friday.

U.S. stock and bond markets will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day. On Friday in the U.S., all three major indexes ended mixed as the fourth-quarter earnings season got under way, with four Big Banks posting downbeat results.

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