Sensex hovers around 25000; banks, metals, FMCG support

Moneycontrol Bureau10:50 am Market Expert: The reversal in the market, seen in the last three weeks, has lifted market sentiments considerably, said Gautam Shah, Associate Director & Technical Analyst at JM Financial. No pullback in the last few weeks indicates a reversal to 15-months market downtrend, he added. Nifty could move towards the 7,850 level in the long term, he said adding that 7,400 and 7,600 levels will be the crucial levels to watch out for. What works for this market is a strong momentum and stabilising global cues.“The market is now making higher tops and higher bottoms,” he said, adding that one must buy on dips in such a market. 10:35 am FM on corporate tax: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the Indian government has resolved various legacy issues with regard to taxation and is gradually working to bring down the corporate tax rates to the global level at 25 percent from 30 percent currently.

The minister further said that India achieved over 7.5 percent growth rate despite global headwinds and the effort of the government would be to improve it further by promoting ease of doing business and attracting more foreign investment and preventing domestic investors from going abroad.

10:15 am Lupin under pressure: Lupin's Mandideep unit has been flagged by United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA). In particular, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and formulations units of the plant in Madhya Pradesh have received two observations each, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources.IIFL says these are very serious observations, adding the company may take at least 18 months to complete remediation at Mandideep unit. The Mandideep unit contributes USD 200 million in revenues for Lupin.The scrip of Lupin was quoting at Rs 1,307.40, down Rs 187.80, or 12.56 percent. It has touched a 52-week low of Rs 1,294.05.10:00 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks gained marginal strength amid choppy trade, supported by banks, FMCG, metals and auto stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 61.47 points to 25027.87 and the 50-share NSE Nifty advanced 23.55 points to 7638.65.

The broader markets also traded higher with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively. About 899 shares advanced against 632 declining shares on BSE.

Reliance Industries, ITC, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, SBI, Hindalco Industries and Tata Steel gained 1-3 percent while Lupin and Sun Pharma plunged more than 2 percent.