The Sensex hit fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade, while the Nifty hovered near the day's high. At 11:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 314.35 points or 0.95% at 33,311.11. The Nifty 50 index was up 98.05 points or 0.97% at 10,222.40. The Sensex was trading above the psychological 33,000 mark. Positive trend in other Asian indices boosted sentiment in domestic market. IT shares were in demand.
The Sensex rose 358.17 points, or 1.09% at the day's high of 33,354.93 in mid-morning trade, its highest level since 16 March 2018. The index rose 94.06 points, or 0.29% at the day's low of 33,090.82 in early trade. The Nifty rose 101.10 points, or 1% at the day's high of 10,225.45 in morning trade, its highest level since 16 March 2018. The index rose 48.85 points, or 0.48% at the day's low of 10,173.20 in early trade.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.97%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.21%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The broad market depicted strength. There were more than two gainers against every loser on BSE. 1,693 shares rose and 601 shares fell. A total of 133 shares were unchanged.
IT shares were in demand. MindTree (up 3.90%), MphasiS (up 2.01%), Oracle Financial Services Software (up 1.97%), Persistent Systems (up 1.29%), Infosys (up 0.98%), HCL Technologies (up 0.84%) and Wipro (up 0.09%), edged higher. Hexaware Technologies (down 0.04%) and Tech Mahindra (down 0.74%), edged lower.
IT major TCS was up 0.55%. The company announced that Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company (SRC) has implemented a single, integrated technology platform for its core operations to refinance real estate, a first of its nature deployment in the Middle East region. TCS BaNCS will now service the complete mortgage refinancing lifecycle including the treasury function as well as finance, human resources and payroll administration through its partner network. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 20 March 2018.
Most pharmaceutical shares rose. Cipla (up 2.26%), Piramal Enterprises (up 1.34%), Wockhardt (up 1.10%), IPCA Laboratories (up 1.05%), Lupin (up 0.87%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 0.83%), Alkem Laboratories (up 0.64%), Divi's Laboratories (up 0.59%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 0.51%) and Strides Shasun (up 0.23%), edged higher. GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.07%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 0.08%), Cadila Healthcare (down 0.34%) and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 0.34%), edged lower.
Alembic Pharmaceuticals was up 2.85%. The company announced before trading hours today, 21 March 2018, that the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has conducted an inspection at Alembic Pharmaceuticals Formulation Facility located at Panelav from 12 March 2018 to 20 March 2018. This was a scheduled inspection and at the end of the inspection, the US FDA issued a Form 483 with 3 observations. None of the observations are related to data integrity or repetitive in nature. The company is preparing the response to the observations, which will be submitted to the USFDA shortly.
On the economic front, investment bank Goldman Sachs reportedly downgraded its forecasts for India's economy on Tuesday, 20 March 2018, in the wake of a more than $2 billion fraud at Punjab National Bank, warning it could spark tighter regulation of the banking sector that would constrain credit growth. Goldman Sachs lowered its real GDP forecast on India till March 2019 to 7.6% from 8% earlier. For the current fiscal ending 31 March, it forecasts the Indian economy to grow 6.6%.
Overseas, Asian shares were trading higher after recent losses amidst caution ahead of a key US Federal Reserve policy meeting outcome. US stocks ended higher Tuesday, led by strong gains in the energy sector as the overall market reclaimed some lost ground from the previous day, when tech shares fell sharply.
The US Federal Reserve started a two-day monetary policy meeting yesterday, 20 March 2018. The outcome of the meeting will be announced later in the global day today, 21 March 2018, with new Chair Jerome Powell set to give his first news conference.
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