Key benchmark indices continued to trade in a narrow range in the early afternoon trade. The Nifty struggled to cross 11,000 mark and traded flat.
At 12:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 10.32 points or 0.03% at 37,093.96. The Nifty 50 index was up 1.25 points or 0.01% at 10,984.05.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.39%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.33%, outperforming the Sensex.
The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1130 shares rose and 1012 shares fell. A total of 118 shares were unchanged.
On the derivatives front, the NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 0.06% at 14.89. The Nifty September 2019 futures were trading at 11,004.90, a premium of 18.80 points compared with the spot at 10,986.10.
On the options front, the Nifty option chain for 26 September 2019 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 23.90 lakh contracts at the 11,000 strike price. Maximum put OI of 31.08 lakh contracts was seen at 10,800 strike price. The option chain indicated that Nifty will stay between 10,800 and 11,000 in September expiry.
Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) slipped 2.39% to Rs 65.30 after the bank informed that CARE Ratings had revised the rating outlook of tier I & tier II bonds from "stable" to "under credit watch with developing implications". The bank said the rating action was undertaken in view of the Ministry of Finance's announcement regarding the proposed amalgamation of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India with Punjab National Bank.
Pharma stocks declined. Lupin (down 0.2%), Cipla (down 0.42%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.58%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 0.7%), Sun Pharmaceuticals (down 0.76%), Divi's Laboratories (down 1.69%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 2.15%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 3.92%), Wockhardt (down 4.13%) and Piramal Enterprises (down 4.98%) tumbled.
The S&P BSE Healthcare was down 0.72% at 12,978.57.
Dr. Lal Pathlabs was up 2.64% at Rs 1344.20. The stock hit an intraday high of Rs 1360 which is also a 52-week high for the counter.
Gujarat State Petronet was up 0.91% at Rs 226.35. The stock hit an intraday high of Rs 229.90 which is also a 52-week high for the counter.
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