Pharma shares firm up amid rangebound trade; Lupin up 2%

Business standard has posted by Pharma shares firm up amid rangebound trade; Lupin up 2% At 10:40am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 4 points at 26,769 and the Nifty50 was down 5 points at 8,199. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap were trading with marginal losses. Market breadth was negative with 1197 losers and 719 gainers on the BSE.

Pharma shares firmed up in an otherwise rangebound market as investors remained cautious ahead of Brexit poll outcome later today which will decide whether Britian would remain in the European Union or not.

Lupin was up nearly 2% after it received final approval from the USFDA for Amabelz tablets (Estradiol and Norethindrone Acetate Tablets USP, 0.5mg/0.1mg and 1mg/0.5mg) to market a generic version of Amneal Pharmaceuticals' Activella tablets.

Sun Pharma was also up around 2% after the company said its board will hold a meeting on later today for evaluating a proposal of Buy Back of Equity Shares of the Company. Among others, Dr Reddy's Labs was up 1.5%.

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(Updated at 9:40am)

Markets continued to trade flat as investors remained cautious ahead of the outcome of the Brexit poll outcome later today which will decide whether Britian would remain in the European Union or not.

At 9:40am. the S&P BSE Sensex was up 25 points at 26,791 and the Nifty50 was down 1 point at 8,203. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were trading flat with negative bias.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in equities worth Rs 41 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian equities are trading in a mixed manner following downslide in the US stocks, as investors remain edgy ahead of the UK vote on whether to leave the European Union (EU).  Japan’s Nikkei, Singapore’s Straits Times and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained between 0.3%-0.5%. Meanwhile, China’s Shanghai Composite has slipped 0.2%.

US stocks ended with marginal losses on Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.3% at 17,781, the S&P 500 ended down 0.2% at 2,085 and the Nasdaq ended down 0.2% at 4,833.

STOCKS

Tata Motors was up over 1% on short covering after losses in the previous session on concerns that profitability of its UK-based JLR would be sharply impacted in case of Brexit.

ITC which had corrected in the previous session was trading with marginal gains. The FMCG major's longest serving chairman, YC Deveshwar decided to step down from executive role from February 2017, after which he will stay on as Non-Executive Chairman.

Lupin was up nearly 2% after it received final approval from the USFDA for Amabelz tablets (Estradiol and Norethindrone Acetate Tablets USP, 0.5mg/0.1mg and 1mg/0.5mg) to market a generic version of Amneal Pharmaceuticals' Activella tablets.

Sun Pharma was up 1% as its board will hold a meeting on June 23, 2016 for evaluating a proposal of Buy Back of Equity Shares of the Company.

GAIL India was marginally up after it was awarded Rs 550 crore worth of contracts for laying part of 'Urga Ganga' gas pipeline from Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to Haldia in West Bengal (WB).

Among others, subscribers of Reliance Communications' CDMA devices, who have a 4G SIM, will now be able to access the service as the company had received the legal intercept and monitoring (LIM) approval from the department of telecom in 12 out of 22 circles. The stock was up 1.5%.

Pune-based Force Motors on Wednesday inaugurated its Rs 100 crore greenfield plant for supplying engines and axle to Mercedes-Benz, India's biggest luxury carmaker. The stock was up 0.5%.

The government will sell 2.06 crore shares in NTPC to eligible employees at a price of Rs 115.90, a 5 per cent discount to the price of Rs 122 at which the government sold 5 per cent stake in the power generator in February. NTPC was down over 3%.

KEC International was up 5% after it announced that the company has won orders worth Rs. 1,036 crore.