Nifty hovers around 8,600; L&T up 1.8%

Markets continued to remain range bound in late trades on Thursday as gains in pharma and capital goods shares helped offset losses in index heavyweights.

India which deferred the talks with the European Union on the proposed free trade agreement expressing disappointment and concern over the EU banning sale of around 700 pharma products clinically tested by GVK Biosciences also aided sentiment.

At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 110 points at 28,334 and the 50-share Nifty was up 32 points at 8,600.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was trading flat while Small-cap index was up 0.1%. Market breadth was weak with 1,360 gainers and 1,425 losers on the BSE.

Foreign portfolio investors were net buyers in Indian equities to the tune of Rs 448 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

The Indian rupee was trading marginally lower to the US dollar at 63.77 compared to the previous close of 63.75.

BSE Healthcare was the top gainer up 1.5% followed by Capital Goods and Consumer Durables index. However, BSE Metal and IT indices were the sectoral losers.

Pharma shares rallied after Dr Reddy's Labs after it announced plans to expand in Europe and grow its proprietary products business over the next two years. The company has entered into a strategic collaboration with Amgen – one of the world’s leading independent biotechnology companies - to market and distribute three Amgen medicines in India in the areas of oncology and cardiology. Among other pharma majors, Cipla, Sun Pharma and Lupin were up 0.6-1.9% each.

Capital goods shares firmed up after robust results from Siemens. Siemens was up 2.5% after hitting a record high of Rs 1,558 after the company reported a 13-fold jump in standalone net profit at Rs 168 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 (Q3), due to cost rationalisation process and strong performance by its power and gas segement.

L&T was up nearly 2% while BHEL was up nearly 1% ahead of its first quarter earnings on Friday.

IT majors were trading mixed after profit booking in select counters post gains in the previous sessions and encouraging earnigns from Cognizant. Infosys and Wipro were down 0.5-0.6% each while TCS was up 1%.

Among the index heavyweights, ITC was down 1.7% while Reliance Industries eased 0.5%.