The market was trading in a narrow range in mid-morning trade. At 11:37 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 46.35 points or 0.12% at 38,141.42. The Nifty 50 index was up 13.95 points or 0.12% at 11,476.15. Indices opened with small gains and continued hovering near flat line in morning trade. Benchmarks turned range bound in mid-morning trade. Negative cues from other Asian shares capped gains. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.43%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.45%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1222 shares rose and 1024 shares fell. A total of 145 shares were unchanged. Pharmaceutical shares rose across the board. IPCA Laboratories (up 2.83%), Strides Shasun (up 1.8%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.52%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.39%), Cadila Healthcare (up 1.36%), Piramal Enterprises (up 1.19%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 1.14%), Divi's Laboratories (up 1.05%), Lupin (up 0.97%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.8%), Wockhardt (up 0.69%), Alkem Laboratories (up 0.61%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 0.53%) and Cipla (up 0.09%), edged higher. IT shares were mixed. TCS (down 0.63%), Hexaware Technologies (down 0.62%), Wipro (down 0.5%), Tech Mahindra (down 0.41%) and MphasiS (down 0.22%), edged lower. Oracle Financial Services Software (up 0.15%), Infosys (up 0.32%) and Persistent Systems (up 0.84%), edged higher. MindTree was down 1.77%. The promoters of Mindtree after market hours yesterday, 18 March 2019, said they would unconditionally oppose the reported hostile takeover bid by Larsen and Toubro (L&T). L&T was down 2.03%. L&T announced after market hours yesterday, 18 March 2019, that it entered into a definitive share purchase agreement (SPA) with V G Siddhartha and his related entities namely, Coffee Day Trading & Coffee Day Enterprises, to acquire 20.32% stake in Mindtree, a global technology services and digital transformation company. L&T will purchase this stake at a price of Rs 980 per share, aggregating to approximately Rs 3269 crore. Immediately following the filing of the public announcement, L&T placed an order with its broker for on-market purchase of up to 15% of share capital of Mindtree at a price not exceeding Rs 980 per share. Pursuant to execution of the SPA, the aforementioned market order for share purchase and with the intent to acquire majority stake in Mindtree, L&T announced an open offer to the public shareholders of Mindtree to purchase up to an additional 31% of the outstanding shares of Mindtree at a price of Rs 980 per share in cash. HCL Technologies was up 0.69%. The company has entered into a shared services arrangement with Xerox Corporation pursuant to which Xerox will outsource (subject to compliance with European works council consultation and employment regulatory requirements) certain global administrative and support functions, including, among others, selected information technology and finance functions (excluding accounting). The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 18 March 2019. Majesco was down 0.08%. The company announced the acquisition of the India based insurance software business from its parent company, Majesco. The business will be acquired by Majesco's 100% subsidiary in India, Majesco Software And Solutions India (MSSIPL), and is subject to statutory approvals including approval of the shareholders of Majesco and shall be effective from 1 April 2019. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 18 March 2019. Overseas, Asian shares were trading lower ahead of a closely watched meeting by the US Federal Reserve set to kick off later in the day. US stocks closed modestly higher Monday, as investors prepared for a meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers to begin Tuesday. The Fed is expected to leave rates unchanged when it concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday. Investors will focus on the statement issued by policy makers. On the US data front, the National Association of Home Builders' monthly confidence index was unchanged at a seasonally-adjusted reading of 62. In Europe, Britain's parliament banned another vote on same Brexit deal. Prime Minister Theresa May's third attempt to get parliament to back her Brexit deal were thrown into further turmoil on Monday when the speaker of parliament ruled that she could not put her divorce deal to a new vote unless it was re-submitted in fundamentally different form. May has only two days to win approval for her deal to leave the European Union if she wants to go to a summit with the bloc's leaders on Thursday with something to offer them in return for more time. Powered by Capital Market - Live News |