The Sensex hit fresh intraday high while the Nifty hovered near the day's high in mid-morning trade. At 11:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 132.99 points or 0.39% at 34,583.76. The Nifty 50 index was up 14.20 points or 0.13% at 10,598.90.
Key indices opened higher and extended gains as the session progressed. The Sensex rose 161.66 points, or 0.47% at the day's high of 34,612.43 in mid-morning trade. The index rose 14.72 points, or 0.04% at the day's low of 34,465.49 in morning trade. The Nifty rose 25.15 points, or 0.24% at the day's high of 10,609.85 in morning trade. The index fell 11.50 points, or 0.11% at the day's low of 10,573.20 in morning trade.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.28%, underperforming the Sensex. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.41%, outperforming the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1266 shares rose and 998 shares fell. A total of 129 shares were unchanged.
Pharma shares were in demand. Alkem Laboratories (up 4.6%), Wockhardt (up 4.03%), IPCA Laboratories (up 3.2%), Cadila Healthcare (up 2.12%), Lupin (up 1.97%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.73%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 1.29%), Strides Shasun (up 1.11%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 0.99%), Piramal Enterprises (up 0.56%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.53%), Divi's Laboratories (up 0.52%) and Cipla (up 0.38%), edged higher. GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals was down 0.75%.
Alembic Pharmaceuticals rose 2.19%. The company announced during trading hours today, 24 April 2018, that the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) conducted an inspection at the company's API Facility located at Panelav from 16 April 2018 to 23 April 2018. This was a scheduled inspection and at the end of the inspection, there were zero 483s.
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Reliance Naval and Engineering lost 5.93% after the company reported net loss of Rs 408.68 crore in Q4 March 2018, higher than net loss of Rs 139.92 crore in Q4 March 2017. Total income dropped 86.13% to Rs 34.76 crore in Q4 March 2018 over Q4 March 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 23 April 2018.
Swaraj Engines rose 0.77% after net profit rose 16.95% to Rs 17.87 crore on 15.23% rise in total income to Rs 189.40 crore in Q4 March 2018 over Q4 March 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 23 April 2018. The board of directors has recommended an equity dividend of Rs 25 per share for the financial year ended 31 March 2018 (FY 2018). Further, keeping in view of the company's fund position, the board, has also recommended a special dividend payment of Rs 25 per share, taking the total dividend to Rs 50 per share for FY 2018.
Most IT shares declined. Wipro (down 1.73%), Tech Mahindra (down 1.69%), HCL Technologies (down 0.98%), Infosys (down 0.89%), Hexaware Technologies (down 0.74%), MindTree (down 0.67%) and TCS (down 0.45%), edged lower. Persistent Systems (up 0.60%), MphasiS (up 0.73%) and Oracle Financial Services Software (up 1.59%), edged higher.
Overseas, Asian shares are mixed with a decline in tech shares and rising US bond yields weighing on investor sentiment. S stocks ended on a mixed note as investors grappled with rising bond yields and a mixed bag of earnings reports. The closely watched yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed, settling just below the psychologically important 3% level.
The Chicago Fed national activity index for March declined to 0.10 from 0.98 in February.
Preliminary readings of the manufacturing and services purchasing managers' indexes for April showed that IHS Markit flash manufacturing PMI rose to 56.5 in April from 55.6, while the flash reading for services showed a climb to 54.4 in April from 54.
Meanwhile, existing-home sales in the US increased 1.1% in March from the previous month to a seasonally annual rate of 5.60 million.
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