Markets get pharma boost

Dr Reddy's, Lupin lead; ITC slips

Mumbai: The stock markets maintained upward momentum on Thursday, though the day started sluggish. Interestingly, Hyderabad based Dr Reddy's strategic tie-up with Amgen fuelled rally while capital goods shares created buying interest.

Also the government's decision to defer EU proposed free trade agreement following EU banning sale of about 700 drugs which were clinically tested by GVK Biosciences added to investor sentiment. Sensex closed at 28,298 up by 75 points and Nifty ended up 21 points at 8589.

Meanwhile, the broader markets were mixed with midcap index up by 0.4 per cent and smallcap index up by 0.1 per cent. On sectoral front, capital goods index was top gainer with nearly 2 per cent followed by consumer durables and healthcare indices. On the other hand, metals, oil and gas indices reported losses.

From pharma pack, Dr Reddy's gained over 3 per cent in the intraday after the company announced marketing agreement with American pharma company Amgen. Other stocks including Lupin, Cipla and Sun Pharma end the session up to 1.4 per cent, each.

IT majors slowly coming to terms after early losses and ended with marginal gains with Infosys and TCS ended up to 1.3 per cent. The other index heavyweights ITC down 1.7 per cent and RIL dipped 0.7 per cent.

The gainers: Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 2.74 per cent at Rs 1,827.30; Dr Reddy, up 1.79 per cent at Rs 4,270.10; Tata Motors, up 1.63 per cent at Rs 382.90; Lupin, up 1.37 per cent at Rs 1,703.15; and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 1.28 per cent at Rs 2,574.30.

The losers: ITC, down 1.70 per cent at Rs 326.05; Coal India, down 1.59 per cent at Rs 431.10, Reliance Industries, down 0.84 per cent at Rs 979.40; Vedanta, down 0.78 per cent at Rs 126.90; and NTPC, down 0.62 per cent at Rs 135.65.