Markets turn choppy; Sun Pharma slips 5%

Markets have erased early gains and have turned choppy weighed down by heacthcare shares. Also, investors have turned cautious ahead of the IIP and CPI numbers which are due to be released tomorrow.

At 9.50 AM the Sensex is up 23 points at 27,080 and the Nifty has gained 14 points at 8,109 levels.

Sun Pharma, Cipla, Coal India, Bharti Airtel and ONGC are the top 5 losers on the BSE and have lost between 0.7-6%.

Shares of Sun Pharma are down over 5% after the US Food and Drug Administration conducted a surprise inspection of the pharma major's manufacturing unit at Halol, Gujarat.

The markets have opened on a firm note after witnessing losses in the previous two sessions tracking positive global cues.

The government will release the CPI data for August 2014 tomorrow and the industrial production data for the month of July tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the provisional data released by the stock exchanges after trading hours yesterday, 10 September 2014, showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 9.91 crore on that day.

At 9.38 AM, the Sensex is up 14 points at 27,071 and the Nifty is up 14 points at 8,108 levels.

The market breadth is positive with 900 shares advancing and 142 shares declining.

The broader markets are outperforming the large counter parts. BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 1% each.

Global Markets:

Asian markets were trading in a narrow range after US President Barack Obama said he had authorised US air strike in Syria and also in Iraq to fight the Islamic State militants.

However, Japanese shares remained firm amid a weaker yen. The benchmark Nikkei was up 0.5%. Straits Times and Hang Seng were up 0.2-0.3% each while Shanghai Composite was up 0.6%.

US stocks recovered from the losses in the previous two sessions helped by a rebound in shares of Apple which recently unveiled the iPhone6. Meanwhile, energy shares continued to remain weak tracking weakness in crude oil prices. The Dow Jones gained 0.3% to end at 17,068.71, the broader S&P 500 gained 0.4% to close at 1,995.69 and the Nasdaq Composite ended up 0.8% at 4,586.52.

Sectors & Stocks:

On the sectoral front, BSE Consumer Durables index is leading the rally up 0.7% followed by IT, Capital Goods, Power and Realty indices. Bankex is up 0.6%. However, Healthcare, Metal and Oil & Gas indices are losing sheen on the BSE down between 0.3-1%.

The power stocks are trading firm in the early trades with NTPC and Tata Power up between 0.5-1.6% after SC reserved the verdict on coal block de-allocation.

The technology pack which witnesses selling in the previous trading session has rebounded and are trading firm with Infosys, TCS and Wipro up between 0.5-1%.

In the financial segment, HDFC twins, Axis Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank have gained between 0.5-1%.

Hindalco, Hero Motocorp, BHEL and Sesa Sterlite are some of the prominent names in green among others and have gained between 0.5-1%.

On the flip side, heavy selling is evident in the pharma space. Cipla, Dr Reddy’s Lab and Sun Pharma have lost between 1-4%.

Coal India and ONGC have dipped 1.6% and 2% each after cabinet committee on economic affairs approved stake sales of these companies.

Bharti Airtel is down over 0.5%.