Sensex, Nifty erase gains; Natco Pharma zooms by 14 per cent, Dr Reddys at all-time high

Dragged mainly by banking and financial stocks, the domestic benchmark indices on Friday, witnessed a sharp fall during the afternoon session. Sensex fell by more than 300 points from the day’s high to close at 38,845.82 levels, down by 134.03 points or 0.34 per cent from its previous close. Nifty declined by 11.15 points or 0.10 per cent to settle at 11,504.95 levels.

Gains in pharmaceutical and auto stocks capped losses as the financial stocks tumbled.

The shares of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories surged by more than 10 per cent after the company said that it has settled its patent litigation with Celgene for the latter's cancer drug capsules.

IPO of Angel Broking will open for subscription on September 22 and will close on September 24, comprising of a fresh issue of Rs 300 crore and an offer for sale, aggregating to Rs 300 crore. The price band for the issue has been fixed at Rs 305-Rs 306 per equity share.

In global markets, Shanghai index gained by 2.07 per cent while Hang Seng, KOSPI, and Nikkei rose by 0.47 per cent, 0.26 per cent, and 0.18 per cent, respectively. Europan indices such as FTSE 100 and CAC 40 were seen trading in the negative territory, down by 0.17 per cent and 0.32 per cent, respectively while DAX was trading flat. 

Sensex gainers included Bharti Airtel that went by 3.73 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra surged 2.72 per cent, NTPC increased by 2.48 per cent, Tech Mahindra rose by 2.29 per cent, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries gained by 2.23 per cent, Power Grid jumped 2.05 per cent, etc.

Sensex draggers consisted of HDFC Bank, which went down by 2.39 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank fell by 2.07 per cent, Bajaj Finserv decreased by 1.92 per cent, Maruti Suzuki fell by 1.73 per cent, Titan Company plunged by 1.67 per cent, SBI fell by 1.48 per cent, HUL declined by 1.39 per cent, etc.

Amongst sectoral indices on BSE, the Healthcare index was the biggest gainer that was up by 3.50 per cent, followed by the Telecom index and Realty index, which gained 2.69 per cent and 1.96 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, BSE Finance index was the biggest loser, down by 1.16 per cent and BSE Bankex fell by 1.13 per cent.

In broader markets, BSE Small-Cap index declined by 0.32 per cent whereas, BSE Mid-Cap index gained by 0.26 per cent. The top mid-cap index gainers included Natco Pharma, Rajesh Exports, Bayer Cropscience, Oberoi Realty, etc.