Latest Stock Market News

The Nifty Pharma index was trading 0.72 per cent up at 12529.85.

A long bullish candle on the daily scale has opened room for the stock to now breach Rs 9,000 levels in the next 3-4 weeks, suggest experts. The breakout was accompanied with strong volumes, and on the weekly scale as well, the stock formed a strong bullish candle which is a positive sign. The stock rose more than 3% in a week and over 7% in a month.

A total of 7,704 shares changed hands on the counter till 10:57AM (IST)

On Thursday, bullion prices fell 1% due to a firmer dollar and strong U.S. economic data that could prompt the Fed to keep interest rates higher for longer.The U.S. economy maintained a strong pace of growth in the fourth quarter as consumers boosted spending on goods, but momentum appears to have slowed considerably towards the end of the year.

Stocks that were in focus include names like Zomato which was down more than 8%, Bajaj Auto which was up nearly 1%, and Biocon which was down more than 4% on Wednesday.

"We would prefer to be overweight on cement, capital goods, railways, IT, and pharma. We would be cautious on BFSI. The capital goods sector shall be in the limelight as we expect the public capital expenditure to be increased further over the last year’s 7.5 lakh crore. We expect higher allocation towards capital expenditure in this Budget."

The S&P BSE Sensex fell more than 700 points while Nifty50 closed below 17900 levels on Wednesday. Indian markets remained shut on Thursday for a public holiday.

"​We at Karma Capital have a bottom-up approach towards stock selection with an average investment horizon of more than 5 years, hence, the Union Budget has very little or no bearing on the stock selection process. ​Banks, industrials, and consumption-driven companies should perform better while performance of sectors like technology and commodities is expected to be relatively weaker."

Ahead of the launch of the mega Rs 20,000 crore-FPO of Adani Enterprises on Friday, the diversified conglomerate raised around Rs 6,000 crore over 30 institutional investors, but interestingly, the list showed not a single mutual fund participated in the anchor book.

Adani Group has repeatedly faced and dismissed concern about debt levels. It defended itself in a presentation titled "Myths of Short Seller" on Thursday, saying deleveraging by promoters - or key shareholders - was "in a high growth phase".