Sensex extends losses, Nifty below 7300; Reliance drags

Moneycontrol Bureau12:58 pm Market Extends Losses: Equity benchmarks fell further on weak global growth worries. The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 181.62 points or 0.75 percent to 23880.42 and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 45.05 points or 0.62 percent to 7264.25.The market breadth was weak as about 1376 shares declined for 988 advancing shares on the BSE.

12:50 pm Buzzing: Shares of Granules India rallied more than 5 percent intraday Thursday as its US subsidiary is going to market anti-acid drug in North America.

"Granules USA, the wholly owned subsidiary of Granules India, entered into an agreement with Par Pharmaceutical Inc (a subsidiary of Endo International Plc) to market generic version of OTC omeprazole and sodium bicarbonate in North America," said Hyderabad-based pharma company.

Omeprazole is a proton pump inhibitor that decreases production of stomach acid. Sodium bicarbonate is an anti-acid that raises stomach pH to keep omeprazole from breaking down in stomach acid.

12:45 pm Earnings Poll: Pharmceutical firm Biocon's third quarter profit is likely to increase 15.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 105.05 crore and revenue is seen rising 14 percent to Rs 867 crore, according to analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Profit growth may be led by higher revenue and margin improvement but revenue growth may get impacted by biopharma segment. Slow recovery in Middle East market and Fidaxomicin supplies may pressure Biopharma.

Biopharma is around 70 percent of sales includes APIs, branded formulations, biosimilars etc. It also includes generics like statins + fidaxomicin (anti-infectives). Biopharma business reported a 4 percent year-on-year growth at Rs 459 crore in Q2FY16.

Key factors to watch out for would be branded formulations (India domestic formulations) and R&D spend. In Q2FY16, branded formulations in India was up only 3 percent year-on-year to Rs 119 crore.12:35 pm Glenmark in News: Glenmark Pharma today said it has received final approval from the USFDA to manufacture and market Potassium Chloride extended release capsules and oral contraceptive Norethindrone Acetate and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets in the American market."Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc has been granted final approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for Potassium Chloride extended release capsules USP, 10mEq, of Actavis Laboratories FL, Inc," the company said in a BSE filing. Quoting IMS data, Glenmark Pharma said the approved product has an estimated market size of USD 74.1 million for the 12 months ended November 2015.

The company has also received approval for Norethindrone Acetate and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets. It is a generic version of US-based Warner Chilcott's oral contraceptive drug 'Leostrin21'.

12:20 pm Rupee breaches 68/$ again: After a brief recovery, the rupee once again breached the 68-mark, depreciating by 10 paise to 68.05 on heavy bouts of demand for the American currency from banks and importers amid higher dollar overseas.

The domestic unit resumed higher at 67.88 per dollar as against Wednesday's closing level of 67.95 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.

Later, it slid to 68.06 before quoting at 68.07 at 12:20 hours IST.Also read - Bottom difficult to call; mkt at attractive level: Alchemy Cap

12:00 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks wiped out all morning gains, falling half a percent dragged by auto, FMCG, healthcare and oil stocks. The BSE Midcap also slipped into red and even market breadth was negative as about 1262 shares declined against 1042 advancing shares on the BSE.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 130.30 points to 23931.74 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 39.75 points to 7269.55.Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, HUL, ONGC and Dr Reddy's Labs were top gainers on Sensex, up 2-4 percent while Axis Bank continued to be leading contributor in Sensex's gains, up 3.5 percent. ICICI Bank gained 1.6 percent.Markets in Asia lost early gains and slid into negative territory in afternoon trade, following another selloff on Wall Street overnight on global growth concerns, uncertainty in China and fresh lows in oil prices.Nikkei shed 2.4 percent and Shanghai lost 2.6 percent. Hang Seng was down 1.4 percent. Even Dow futures lost over 100 points.