Shares remain flat on reforms hopes

PSU, pharmaceutical stocks lead drop

Indian shares traded flat in late morning trades on expectation of reforms announcement during the ongoing winter session of the Parliament.

At 11:30AM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex index was down 14 points at 18,503 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty fell 3 points to 5,624.

Indian Parliament was adjourned on Thursday amid protests from political leaders over economic reforms passed by Congress-led UPA government earlier  this year.

With only 16 working days in this session, Government is likely to discuss contentious foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and financial sector reforms among others on Monday.

Global risk appetite, however,improved after surge in manufacturing output from China and the United States raised hopes that the global growth recovery is gaining momentum.

The Hang Seng advanced 0.5% or 102points at21,845, Straits Times rose 2 points at 2,988 and the Taiwan Weighted gained 220 points to 7,326. Japanese markets are closed today.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 1% to 856.97 compared to previous close of 848.56.

On Thursday, the U.S. stock market were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, and today it will close early at 1 p.m.

Back home, oil & gas, power and consumer durable sectors on BSE lead gains while PSU and bank indexes were among the laggards.

In the PSU sector, GAIL declined 1% to Rs 343.10, NTPC fell 0.4% while ONGC was down 0.1% while in banking space, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and HDFC Bank between 0.4-0.5% each on the BSE.

On the gainers, Reliance Industries rose 1%t o Rs 772.96 while Hindustan Unilever gained 0.7% in the late morning trades.

Drug makers such as GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Cipla and Ranbaxy Laboratories dropped over 1% each after the Cabinet approved National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy to increase the number of essential drugs that are subject to price caps.
 
Among other notable movers, Hindustan Copper Ltd, a state-owned copper producer, tanked 19% to Rs 217 in opening deals on NSE after the government has announced a floor price of Rs 155 a share for stake sale in the company. The base price is huge 42% discount to Thursday’s closing price of Rs 266 on the BSE.

Blue Dart Express has dipped 9% to Rs 1,875 after the promoter of the company fixed a floor price at a discount for its proposed offer for sale.

Cinemax India has locked in upper circuit of 5% at Rs 168, also its new high, after the company engaged in theatre exhibition business said that its promoters are looking to sale their shares.

Man Industries is trading lower by 5% at Rs 133, extending its previous day’s 10% fall, after the company said the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has suspended the Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) of the company from its official list.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices rose 0.3% each.

The overall breadth is positive as 1,184 stocks have advanced while 1,017 stocks declined on the BSE.