Nifty nears 8450 on F&O expiry day, Sensex up; Cipla gains

Moneycontrol Bureau10:50 am IPO: In a strong show, the Rs 550 crore IPO of biotechnology major Biocon's research arm Syngene International was over-subscribed 32.03 times on the last day of the offer on Wednesday as both retail and institutional investors bid aggressively for the shares.

 The company's IPO received bids for 51,24,24,840 shares as against 1,60,00,000 shares on offer, according to data available with the NSE till 1900 hrs, thus generating demand for shares worth over Rs 17,000 crore. Syngene's public offer opened for subscription on Monday.

The price band has been fixed between Rs 240 and Rs 250 per share. The public issue is of 2.2 crore shares (including the anchor investor portion of 60 lakh). At the given issue size, the company would raise Rs 550 crore at the upper end of the price band.10:30 am Result poll: Cigarette-hotel-to-FMCG major ITC 's first quarter earnings are expected to be muted on decline in cigarette volumes (the major contributor to revenue) and subdued performances from other segments. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, consolidated net profit is seen rising 6 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,320 crore and revenue is likely to increase 0.6 percent to Rs 9,300 crore during the quarter. Operating profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) may rise 3 percent to Rs 3,381 crore and margin may expand 100 basis points to 36.4 percent. The full impact of price hikes on cigarette volumes will be seen in June quarter. ITC hiked cigarette prices on blended basis amount to around 30 percent in July 2014 and March 2015.Don't miss: Japan June factory output subdued, Q2 GDP contraction eyed

The market is surging ahead on July F&O expiry day. The Sensex is up 198.50 points or 0.7 percent at 27761.93 and the Nifty is up 57.60 points or 0.7 percent at 8432.65. About 1387 shares have advanced, 440 shares declined, and 94 shares are unchanged.

Cipla, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, ONGC and HUL are top gainers while Sun Pharma, GAIL, TCS, Infosys and ITC are among laggards in the Sensex.The US Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged, giving no hint of lift-off coming in the next meeting. Policymakers said the economy is expanding moderately, but made no mention of recent volatility around Greece or China.

Gold dipped towards its weakest level since early 2010. Fed comments buoyed the greenback against a basket of currencies, making dollar-priced gold more costly for buyers using other currencies.