Sensex, Nifty open with gains; pharma stocks shine, Natco Pharma up 11%, BSE Midcap gains 0.85%

Equity markets opened with gains on Friday morning but soon slipped to give up their opening highs, but stayed in the green. S&P BSE Sensex surged over 170 points on opening bell while the Nifty 50 crossed the 11,550 mark again. Volatility slipped over 3% on opening. Top gainers on the benchmark 30-stock Sensex included Sun Pharma, Tech Mahindra, TCS, and Power Grid. Among the top drags were Hindustan Unilever, Maruti Suzuki India, and Bajaj Auto. Asian peers were largely in the green. Broader markets were outperforming the benchmarks on Friday morning, Nifty Smallcap 50 was up 0.64%, Nifty Midcap 50 gained 0.50% while the benchmark was up 0.38%.

Pharma stocks zoom: Shares of Lupin were up 5.5% while Cipla gained 4.3%. Dr Reddy’s and Divi’s Labs were up over 3% each. The Nifty Pharma index was up 3.4% and the BSE Healthcare index jumped 2.66%. Natco Pharma’s shares gained over 11%. 

Sectoral watch: Among sectors, Nifty FMCG was the only index down in the red. Nifty IT was up 0.77% while Nifty Auto gained 0.54%. Nifty Pharma was the top gainer surging 3.4%. The Nifty Realty Index was up 0.81%.

Top gainers: Natco Pharma was among the top gainers on the stock exchanges on Friday morning gaining over 11%, followed by Lupin, Dr Reddy, Cipla, and Glenmark pharma. Among BSE Smallcap constituents, M.M Forgings Ltd was up over 7%, followed by Apollo Micro Systems, and Neuland Laboratories. 

Top drags: Essel Propack, Indostar, GMM Pfaudler, Mahindra Lifespace, and ITDC were the top drags. On the benchmark Sensex, Hindustan Unilever was the top drag followed by Maruti Suzuki India and Bajaj Auto. 

Global watch: Asian stock markets were trading mixed on Friday. Shanghai Composite was up along with Hang Seng. Nikkei 225 was flat but looking up while Topix was comfortably in the green. KOSPI and KOSDAQ were down in the red.

Technical take: “We are successfully keeping above the levels of 11550 which is a positive sign. As long as we are above 11300-11350, the overall trend of the market has a positive bias and dips can be utilised to initiate fresh long positions. A target of 11800 is expected,” said Manish Hathiramani, Proprietary Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments.