Pharma, healthcare top sectoral gainers in trade

Mumbai : Pharma and healthcare stocks were buzzing in trade on Tuesday led by the likes of Gland Pharma, Neuland Labs, and PPL Pharma, said Vaibhav Vidwani, Research Analyst at Bonanza Portfolio.

The NIFTY Pharma index was up 1.32 pert cent, whille NIFTY Healthcare was up 1.02 pert cent. NIFTY Realty was the top lower in Tuesday's session (-1.34 pert cent), followed by NIFTY Media (-0.64 pert cent).

Oil Marketing companies were also up. HPCL, which reported its numbers on Monday, ended the day higher by 6.3 pert cent. Similarly, Indian Oil Corp was up 5.1 pert cent, Vidwani said. While the Nifty closed Tuesday at 19,406.70, down 5 points or 0.03 per cent, the Sensex closed at 64,942.40, down 16 points or 0.03 per cent.

The top gainers for Nifty were Sun Pharma, BPCL and NTPC, while the top losers were Hero Moto Corp, Bajaj Finance and JSW Steel. Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said that domestic equities took a pause after three days of consecutive gains amid weak global cues.

Nifty saw some decline initially but later recovered in the second half to close flat. The broader market outperformed with Nifty Mid-cap 100 up 0.3 per cent and Nifty Small-cap 100 was up 0.8 per cent. Among sectors, pharma, oil & gas and PSU Bank were the major gainers.

"The market has shown resilience at lower levels, despite subdued global environment. We expect the market to gradually move upwards given strong Indian economy and healthy earnings season. Investors now await US Fed Chair Jerome Powell's commentary which is scheduled on Thursday for future direction. Also China’s CPI data would be closely watched," Khemka said.