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    Market Movers: Defence, pharma stocks rally; 201 stocks hit their 52-week highs

    Synopsis

    Here is a lowdown of what happened in Monday’s trade.

    marketiStock
    On the downside, the immediate support zone lies at 11,230-11,200 below which a fresh down-move can be expected.
    Better-than-expected financial results of select pharmaceutical players and the government’s action to boost the domestic defence sector aided the rally in domestic stocks on Monday.

    BSE benchmark Sensex closed 141.51 points, or 0.37 per cent, higher at 38182, while Nifty settled 60.65 points, or 0.54 per cent, up at 11,274.70.

    “Today’s trade was characterised by heightened activity in defence and pharmaceutical stocks, the former due to the proposed changes being implemented favouring domestic producers, and the latter due to earnings beat on the quarterly results,” said S Ranganathan, Head of Research, LKP Securities.

    Here is a lowdown of what happened in Monday’s trade:
    Defence stocks delighted
    Shares of defence-linked firms rallied up to 12 per cent after the Ministry of Defence said it has prepared a list of 101 items for which there would be an embargo on imports beyond the timeline indicated against them. Sika Interplant Systems advanced 12.03 per cent to Rs 182, while Bharat Electronics, Astra Microwave and Reliance Naval gained between 4.50 per cent and 10 per cent.

    Broader markets outperform
    The broader indices -- BSE Smallcap (up 1.47 per cent) and BSE Midcap (up 1.42 per cent) -- outperformed the benchmark Sensex. The BSE 500 index, too, gained 0.74 per cent. In the midcap index, Emami and Divi’s Lab advanced up to 20 per cent, while PPAP (up 20 per cent) and Nucleus (up 20 per cent) emerged the top gainers in the smallcap index.

    Healthcare top sectoral gainer
    Heavy buying in pharma majors Divi’s Laboratories (up 11.95 per cent), Cipla (up 9.20 per cent), Sun Pharma (3.41 per cent) and Lupin (up 8.92 per cent) took the BSE Healthcare index higher by 4.69 per cent. Shares of Divi's Laboratories hogged limelight after the company on Saturday reported an 80 per cent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 492.06 crore for June quarter on robust sales growth.

    Stocks that hit 52-week highs
    A total of 201 stocks hit 52-week highs on the BSE. These included Aurobindo Pharma, Cipla, Dabur, Daawat, Eveready, Divi’s Labs, Hexaware, ITI, M&M, and Mastek, among others.

    Stocks that turned ‘overbought’
    More than 34 stocks turned ‘overbought’ during the day crossing above the 70-level on the RSI indicator. They included Sunteck Realty, Adanced Enzyme, Varroc Engineering, PI Industries, Dalmia Bharat, Indo Count and Zydus Wellness, among others.

    Stocks that gave ‘buy’ signals
    Over 150 stocks on BSE gave buy signals as their prices crossed above the signal line on the MACD indicator. They included Vodafone, Nalco, UPL, Coal India, L&T Finance, Balrampur Chini and Bharti Infratel, among others.

    Insider trading: SBI Cards, NIIT
    SBI Life Insurance Company, promoters group of SBI Cards and Payment Services, sold 25,000 shares of the company on Friday, BSE Insiders data showed on Monday. Sapnesh Kumar Lalla, key managerial personnel of NIIT, bought 53,500 shares of the company on August 5.

    Titan settles in the green
    Shares of Titan Company closed 1.57 per cent higher at Rs 1,107 ahead of June quarter earnings. The company later reported a standalone loss of Rs 270 crore for the quarter against Rs 371 crore profit reported for the same quarter last year.

    What do the charts say?
    Though Nifty closed on a positive note, it formed a Doji pattern on the daily chart. Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Senior Technical Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, said this pattern shows loss of momentum on the way up. “The same is evident from the hourly momentum indicator also, as it is showing negative divergence, which is a bearish sign.”

    On the downside, the immediate support zone lies at 11,230-11,200 below which a fresh down-move can be expected, he said.



    (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

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    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

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    (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more
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