Sensex, Nifty continue to gain; banks surge, metals fall

11:30 am Buzzing:Shares of Ipca Labs crashed 15 percent intraday after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to underperform from neutral. The brokerage has also cut its FY15/16 earnings per share (EPS) by 2/12 percent to factor in US sales recovery delay as it impacts the ability to revive sales by shifting active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to third party. 

According to the Credit Suisse, Form 483 for the Indore SEZ suggests Food and Drug Administration (FDA) observations are critical and could delay recovery of US sales.

“FDA has pointed six observations in Form 483. We consider two of these critical, pertaining to the practice of conducting trial/unofficial samples and overwriting/deleting raw data files. We consider these critical as similar observations resulted in adverse FDA action at Sun's Karkhadi unit and Wockhardt's Waluj unit,” it said in a report.

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The market manages to maintain its uptrend. The Nifty is at 8355.70, up 31 points while the Sensex is 27967. 77, up 104 points.

Bank stocks are up while metals are down. SBI, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto and ICICI Bank are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Sesa Sterlite, Coal India, M&M, Hindalco and Bharti Airtel.

Brent crude dropped further below USD 83 a barrel, stretching losses into a fifth session, as weak economic data from top energy consumer China stoked worries about demand in a market that is already battling a deepening global supply glut.

Services sector growth in China weakened in October as new business cooled, a private survey showed, coming just days after previous data revealed sluggish factory growth in the world's second largest economy.