Markets gain on rupee recovery, Ranbaxy zooms 28%

Markets rebounded after two day of sharp losses to end higher on Thursday after a strengthening rupee led to short covering in index heavyweights while Ranbaxy Labs zoomed after healthy US business growth on sequential basis helped restore investor confidence.

At close, the Sensex was up 0.7% or 124 points at 18,789 and the Nifty gained 0.8% or 46 points to end at 5,565.

In broader markets, the midcap and smallcap indices advanced 1.3% each, both outperforming the BSE benchmark index which closed 0.7% higher.

Rupee

The Indian rupee firmed against the US dollar. The local currency was up 41 paise at 60.89 against the dollar on selling of the US currency by banks and exporters amidst volatile equity market.

Global Markets

In international markets, strong trade data from China eased concerns about the global economic outlook on Thursday, supporting European and Asian shares.

The better tone ended three days of steady falls in MSCI's world equity index caused by expectations the Federal Reserve could soon start to wind down its stimulus program, which has driven this year's rally in stocks.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.8% after the Chinese data, recovering more than half of Wednesday's losses, while Europe's shares edged up about 0.1% in early dealing.

In contrast, Tokyo's Nikkei shed 1.6%, extending Wednesday's 4% drop.

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Sectors & Stocks

Except Health Care and Oil & Gas indices which were down 0.2% each, all the other indices were in the green with atleast a 0.4% gain.

Metal and Realty indices up 2.6% and 2.3% were the top sectoral gainers followed by Power, Auto and Teck which added 1% each. PSU, Bankex, IT, FMCG, Consumer Durables and Capital Goods were the other gainers, up 0.4-0.7%.

Among Sensex-30, metal names like Hindalco, Tata Steel, Sterlite and Jindal Steel were the top gainers which added 1-5%. Tata Steel gained on the back of an order to manufacture 60,000 tonnes of high-quality rail for a new high-speed line linking Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Auto names like Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto, too gained 0.3-4%.

In financials, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank gained 0.8-2%.

Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, TCS,BHEL and Tata Power up 1-5% were the other notable gainers.

Among the ones in the red, Sun Pharma and SBI closed down 3% each. Sun Pharmaceutical dipped after its Israel subsidiary Taro Pharmaceutical Industries has reported a 6.5% year-on-year drop in its net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2013.

Dr Reddys Lab, Wipro, Relaince Industries, Hindustan Unilever and Gail India which gave off 0.4-1.5% were the other draggers.

The market breadth was very positive on the BSE on account of strength in broader markets. 1,379 stocks advanced while 869 stocks declined.

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Other Stocks

Ranbaxy Laboratories rallied 28% to Rs 359 after its US sales grew a good 29%at Rs 770 crore in the June’13 quarter, as compared to Rs 595.6 crore clocked in the March’13 quarter.

Cadila Healtchare dipped 5% to Rs 707 on reporting a modest 1.33% year-on-year (yoy) growth in net profit at Rs 204 crore for the first quarter, due to higher expenditure. The pharmaceutical company had reported net profit of Rs 201 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

DLF has moved higher by over 5% to Rs 138 on reports that the real estate developer is looking to sell its under-construction IT special economic zone project in Pune, Maharashtra to for an anticipated Rs 250 crore.

Bharat Forge moved higher by nearly 17% to Rs 231 after reporting a better-than-expected net profit of Rs 91 crore for Q1.Analyst had expected a profit of Rs 67 crore.