Pfizer stock on the NSE witnessed 5% jump after the company on Wednesday announced that it has entered into an acquisition agreement with AstraZeneca for its Neksium brand.
The BSE Pharma index is up by over 2.5% during Thursday’s trading session. Pfizer is up by 6%, Aurobindo Pharma is up by 5%, Divis Lab is up by 4.5% and Sun Pharma is up by 4%. At 11 AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 31171 up 25 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 9618 down 2 points. A total of 48 stocks registered a fresh 52-week high in trade today, while 38 stocks touched a new 52-week low on the NSE. There are 1005 advances, 568 declines and 375 unchanged stocks on NSE reflecting a positive bias floating in the market. The BSE Mid cap Index is trading down 0.3% at 14678, while BSE Small cap Index is trading down 0.8% at 15204. Some buying activity is seen in Healthcare, Industrials, Auto while Realty, Power and Utilities showing weakness on BSE. Aurobindo Pharma, Sun Pharma, Bharti Infratel and HUL are among the gainers, whereas Hindalco, Indiabulls Housing Finance, ICICI Bank and ONGC are losing on the NSE.
At 9:15 AM, the BSE Sensex opened lower by 28 points at 31117, while the Nifty50 opened lower by 18 points at the 9603 mark.
Bharti Infratel is the top Nifty gainer trading higher by 1.55% at Rs 372.3 per share and Indiabulls Housing Finance is the top Nifty loser trading lower by 1.06% at Rs 1148 per share in the morning hours on Thursday. The private bank stocks like HDFC Bank, ICICI bank and Kotak Bank are trading weak on the opening bell on Thursday. These stocks are dragging down the Bank Nifty index and BSE Bankex. Bank Nifty is trading lower by 0.28% at 23359 levels. There are 843 advances, 596 declines and 462 unchanged stocks on NSE reflecting strong positive bias floating in the market. As per the market observers, the level of 9631.8 is the important pivot level to watch out for Nifty on Thursday. The resistance levels for Nifty on Thursday are kept at 9654 and 9672 while the support levels are kept at 9614 and 9591. Rupee opened at 64.48 per USD appreciated by 3 paise on Thursday. The US stocks closed slightly lower on Wednesday as weakness lingered in the energy and banking stocks. The S&P 500 index registered a drop of single point to close at 2,412. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 21 points to end at 21,009, its third straight modest decline. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 5 points to finish at 6,199. Asian markets were trading mixed on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has surged 161 points, whereas Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has slipped 33 points and China’s Shanghai Composite has shed 13 points.
