Indian markets pare early gains

Thu, 19 Mar 01:30 pm

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Federal Reserve comments catapulted Indian Markets with solid gains; however, the same got erased marginally in the post-noon session owing to profit booking. BSE Sensex is trading with a gain of 200 points while NSE-Nifty has advanced with gains of about 60 points. All the sectoral indices are trading in the green within which pharma stocks have gained the maximum, while IT stocks have gained the minimum. BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap have traded with moderate gains of about 0.6% each.

Commodities, too, have gained on the back of Fed's comments on interest rates. Gold prices, per 10 grams, have gained over 1% or Rs 250 while silver prices, per kilogram, have increased over 1.8% or Rs 662. Crude oil prices which declined nearly 15% within one week have gained over 2%. Per barrel, crude oil prices have gained Rs 65. Indian currency has shown weakness since the Fed did not provide any clues of an immediate hike in interest rates. The value of Indian Rupee declined against the U.S Dollar by 0.44% or 0.28 and is currently trading near Rs 62.38 levels.

Most of the Asian stock markets closed today's trading session in the green. However, Japanese market suffered moderate losses of 0.4%. Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Korean markets closed with 0.2%, 1.3%, 0.9% and 0.5% respective gains.

Shares of Religare securities gained nearly 1% after the company announced its futures plans of creating a portfolio of "social relevant assets" which fall under the REIT. Religare Global Asset Management, an arm of Religare securities, is planning to build a portfolio which would include assets that are socially relevant. It would predominantly include schools, hospitals, malls and cinemas. The company plans to raise nearly Rs 10 bn via this route within one year starting from June. On the back of real estate investments, Religare plans to raise nearly $500 mn.

Pharma stocks gained the maximum during today's trading session. Lupin lead the rally with more than 4% gains. Lupin's drug Celebrex received approval from ANDA following which shares of Lupin received investors' attention. Sun Pharma and Suven Life sciences, which are amongst today's lead gainers, have also received many drug approvals recently.