Nifty slides below 23,550; pharma shares decline

The headline equity benchmarks traded with modest losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded below the 23,550 mark. Pharma shares extended losses for the fourth straight day.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 164.92 points or 0.21% to 77,526.03. The Nifty 50 index lost 37.40 points or 0.16% to 23,521.65.

The broader market outperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.62% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index jumped 1.12%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,151 shares rose and 1,669 shares fell. A total of 115 shares were unchanged.

 

Economy:

The annual rate of inflation based on all India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number is 2.36% (Provisional) for the month of October, 2024 (over October, 2023). Inflation in October, 2024 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, manufacture of food products, other manufacturing, manufacture of machinery & equipment, manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers & semi-trailers, etc.

The month-on-month change in WPI for October 2024 showed a rise of 0.97% compared to September 2024.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, slipped 3.25% to 14.93. The Nifty 28 November 2024 futures were trading at 23,611.55, at a premium of 89.90 points as compared with the spot at 23,521.65

The Nifty option chain for the 28 November 2024 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 35 lakh contracts at the 24,500 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 47.7 lakh contracts were seen at 23,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index shed 0.16% to 21,774.45. The index dropped 3.40% in four consecutive trading sessions.

J B Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (down 2.07%), Alkem Laboratories (down 1.07%), Dr Reddys Laboratories (down 1.03%), Lupin (down 0.58%), Zydus Lifesciences (down 0.42%), Cipla (down 0.37%), Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries (down 0.34%), Divis Laboratories (down 0.11%), Abbott India (down 0.09%) declined.

On the other hand, Gland Pharma (up 3.12%), Mankind Pharma (up 1.69%) and Laurus Labs (up 1.31%) edged higher.

Stocks in Spotlight:

SpiceJet rallied 3.86% after the firm fully settled a $90.8 million (Rs 763 crore) dispute with Export Development Canada (EDC) for a total of $22.5 million, resulting in a substantial saving of $68.3 million (Rs 574 crore).

PI Industries dropped 5.30%. The company reported 5.76% increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 508.20 crore in Q2 FY25 as against Rs 480.50 crore posted in Q2 FY24. Revenue from operations grew 4.91% YoY to Rs 2,221 crore in the quarter ended 30 September 2024.

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