Benchmarks sharply pare losses; pharma stocks decline

The domestic equity barometers sharply pared early losses and traded with minor cuts in morning trade. The Nifty hovered near the 15,300 mark. Meanwhile, pharma shares extended their losing streak for the second day in a row.

At 10:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 159.71 points or 0.31% to 51,336.08. The Nifty 50 index fell 66.75 points or 0.43% to 15,293.85.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 1.04% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 1.06%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, 792 shares rose and 2186 shares fell. A total of 108 shares were unchanged.

Fears loomed across markets that the rising attempts of central banks to curb inflation would lead to a slowdown in global economic growth and could possibly lead to a recession.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index fell 2.43% to 11,773.10. The index has declined 3.98% in two sessions.

Dr Reddys Laboratories (down 4.23%), Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries (down 1.94%), Biocon (down 1.79%), Cipla (down 1.75%) and Divis Laboratories (down 1.62%) were the top index losers.

Further, Ipca Laboratories (down 1.58%), Torrent Pharmaceuticals (down 1.5%), Gland Pharma (down 1.47%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 1.43%) and Strides Pharma Science (down 1.29%) declined.

Meanwhile, Granules India (up 1.75%), Abbott India (up 0.34%) and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.18%) edged higher.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Grasim Industries shed 0.27%. Pavan Jain has been appointed as the company`s new CFO and key Managerial Personnel, effective August 15.

Vakrangee fell 2.58%. The company has entered into a seller agreement with Decathlon Sports India to offer a complete range of sports equipments and products to the unserved and underserved population of India.

Ritesh Properties & Industries lost 0.47%. The company`s board approved a sub-division of equity share having face value of Rs 10 each into equity shares of face value of Re 1 each.

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