Sensex under pressure, Bank Nifty falls 1%; Pfizer up 9%

Moneycontrol Bureau
Live Market Commentary

10:50 am Oil update: Brent climbed back above USD 107 a barrel on Wednesday while US crude futures rose for a second day after Ben Bernanke's reassurance about ultra-easy monetary policy continuing and on hopes of higher US oil demand, reports Reuters.

Investors also focused on talks restarting on Wednesday between major powers and Iran to curb Tehran's nuclear programme as a deal may involve easing sanctions on the OPEC producer that could lead to a rise in its crude exports.

10:40 am Market outlook: Prabhat Awasthi of Nomura says he continues to prefer exporters, and private banks among rate cyclicals, but remain cautious on domestic growth cyclicals. His Sensex target for March-end 2014 is 22,000. Nomura's top five strategy stock picks are ICICI Bank, HCL Tech, RIL, Tata Steel and NTPC.

10:30 am Buzzers: Sugar stocks are rallying ahead of an informal meeting of ministers today at 3 pm on the sugar crisis. Shares of Bajaj Hindusthan were up 10 percent, Balrampur Chini gained 5 percent and Dhampur Sugar added 12 percent intraday on Wednesday.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Aviation Minister Ajit Singh are likely to be present.

They will discuss soft loan to sugar industries and increase in ethanol blending to 10 percent from 5 percent.

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The market is going directionless in early morning trade. Weighed down by weakness in banking stocks, the market is unable to make any decisive move.

The Sensex is down 47.79 points at 20843.03, and the Nifty is down 15.10 points at 6188.25. About 1026 shares have advanced, 484 shares declined, and 78 shares are unchanged.

Bank Nifty is down over 1 percent with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank as major losers.  Infosys, Cipla and L&T are other losers in the Sensex.

However, realty and power stocks are seeing good buying. Tata Power, Sesa Sterlite, BHEL, NTPC and Coal India are top gainers in the Sensex.

Pfizer gains around 9 percent and Wyeth is up 20 percent after communication was send to stock exchanges that they will meet on november 23, 2013 to consider a scheme of amalgamation.

Gold was trading in a tight range as investors awaited the release of the minutes of a US Federal Reserve policy meeting later in the session for clues on when the bank will trim its stimulus, reports Reuters.

Bullion failed to make any headway despite dovish comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke about the bank's bond purchases as a lack of major US economic data and lacklustre physical demand prevented investors from taking any big positions.