Key barometers reversed trend and hit fresh intraday low in mid-morning trade. At 11:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 43.22 points or 0.11% at 37,563.36. The Nifty 50 index was down 2.60 points or 0.02% at 11,353.90.
The market opened higher and hit fresh intraday high in early trade. Selling emerged at higher levels, which dragged the market lower in mid-morning trade. The Sensex rose 105.29 points, or 0.28% at the day's high of 37,711.87 in early trade. The index fell 51.52 points, or 0.14% at the day's low of 37,555.06 in mid-morning trade. The Nifty rose 34.05 points, or 0.30% at the day's high of 11,390.55 in early trade. The index fell 5.80 points, or 0.05% at the day's low of 11,350.70 in mid-morning trade.
Broader market bucked negative market trend. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.37%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.27%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1,271 shares rose and 1,006 shares fell. A total of 120 shares were unchanged.
Car major Maruti Suzuki India was down 1.72% after the company said that its total sales fell 0.6% to 164,369 lakh units in July 2018 over July 2017. The announcement was made today, 1 August 2018.
IT shares were mixed. MphasiS (up 2.15%), MindTree (up 1.81%), TCS (up 1.48%), HCL Technologies (up 0.33%) and Hexaware Technologies (up 0.13%), edged higher. Persistent Systems (down 0.14%), Tech Mahindra (down 0.18%), Wipro (down 0.49%), Infosys (down 0.68%) and Oracle Financial Services Software (down 0.76%), edged lower.
Most pharmaceutical shares rose. Lupin (up 2.05%), Divi's Laboratories (up 1.88%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.36%), Wockhardt (up 1.28%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 0.86%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.76%), Strides Shasun (up 0.74%), Alkem Laboratories (up 0.68%), IPCA Laboratories (up 0.6%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.25%) and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 0.2%), edged higher. Piramal Enterprises (down 0.19%) and Cipla (down 0.55%), edged lower.
Cadila Healthcare was down 1.18%. The company announced during trading hours today, 1 August 2018, that it received the final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Azithromycin for Oral Suspension USP (US RLD - Zithromax), 100 mg/5 mL and 200 mg/5 mL. This medication contains Azithromycin, a macrolide antibiotic that fights bacteria. It is used to treat different types of bacterial infections such as respiratory infections, skin infections, ear infections and sexually transmitted diseases. This medication will not work for Viral infections such as common cold, flu etc. The drug will be manufactured at the group's formulations manufacturing facility at Baddi. In line with this, the group now has 213 approvals and has so far filed over 330 ANDAs since the commencement ofthe filing process in FY 2003-04.
On the macro front, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will conclude its two-day monetary policy meeting today, 1 August 2018. The resolution of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be unveiled at 14:30 IST today, 1 August 2018. RBI raised its benchmark policy repo rate by 0.25% to 6.25% in its second bi-monthly monetary policy for 2018-2019 on 6 June 2018.
Overseas, most Asian stocks edged higher, taking cues from the positive session seen in the US market following news that the US and China may restart official talks about their months-long trade dispute.
US stocks closed higher Tuesday, as investors continued to digest an onslaught of quarterly earnings reports, with the vast majority beating expectations. But headline news on trade continued to drive markets.
According to media reports, representatives of US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are in private talks to resume negotiations on trade matters in a bid to avoid a trade war.
Investors will be watching data from around the Asian region, including manufacturing activity numbers from China, for indications of the outlook for the global economy.
Policy meetings of the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday, 1 August 2018, and the Bank of England on Thursday, 2 August 2018, will also keep some investors on the sidelines, although the US central bank is expected to keep rates unchanged.
On the US data front, consumer spending rose a solid 0.4% in June. Meanwhile, the employment cost index rose 0.6% in the second quarter. The S&P/Case-Shiller national index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% and was up 6.4% for the year in May. A measure of regional manufacturing activity in Chicago came in at the highest in six months. Chicago PMI rose 1.4 points to 65.5 in July, MNI Indicators said. Any reading above 50 indicates improving conditions. Separately, a reading of consumer confidence came in at 127.4 in July, compared with 126.5 in the previous month.
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