Asian stock markets are lower today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares fall. The Shanghai Composite is off 0.3% while the Hang Seng is down 0.4%. The Nikkei 225 is trading down by 0.4%. Wall Street pulled back from record levels on Friday after a four-day rally, as investors digested a report that showed strength in the US labor market, while keeping a close eye on developments surrounding the coronavirus epidemic.
Back home, India share markets opened on a negative note. The BSE Sensex is trading down by 118 points while the NSE Nifty is trading down by 36 points. The BSE Mid Cap index opened down by 0.1% while BSE Small Cap index opened up by 0.2%.
Sectoral indices have opened the day on a mixed note with healthcare stocks and telecom stocks witnessing buying interest. Metal and automobiles stocks are trading in red.
The rupee is currently trading at 71.37 against the US$.
The rupee declined by 22 paise to settle at 71.40 against the US dollar on Friday amid selling in domestic equities and strengthening of the American currency overseas.
Reportedly, the rupee traded weak largely owing to strengthening of the US dollar ahead of the non-farm payrolls number that were scheduled to be released later in the day.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency had opened on a weak note at 71.26.
Speaking of currencies, Vijay Bhambwani, editor of Weekly Cash Alerts, tells you the main reasons why not to trade commodities and currencies the same way you would trade equities. Here's an excerpt of what he wrote...
To know more, you can read Vijay's entire article here: Is Trading in Equities, Commodities, and Currencies the Same?
Moving on to the news from the pharma sector. As per an article in a leading financial daily, Cipla acquired four brands from Wanbury to expand its presence in the women's health segment.
Cipla acquired four brands, namely CPink, CDense, Productiv and Folinine, to further strengthen its presence in women's health portfolio.
These brands, previously commercialised by Wanbury, have a market size of Rs 31 billion in India with sales value of Rs 596 million.
Cipla share price opened the day up by 1.3%.
In another development, Curis, Inc., a biotechnology company entered into an amendment of its collaboration, license and option agreement with Dr. Reddy's wholly owned subsidiary Aurigene Discovery Technologies.
Under the terms of the amended agreement, Aurigene will fund and conduct a Phase 2b/3 randomized study. In turn, Aurigene receives rights to develop and commercialize the drug in Asia, in addition to its existing rights in India and Russia, based on the terms of the original agreement.
Meanwhile, Curis will retain US, EU, and rest of world rights, and is entitled to receive royalty payments on potential future sales in Asia.
Dr. Reddy's share price opened up by 0.1%.
Here's an interesting data on Dr. Reddy's Lab, investing just Rs 100,000 in Dr. Reddy's Labs in 1992, it would have given a whopping Rs 4.89 crores in 2014!
Co-head of Research, Tanushree Banerjee believes, the opportunities in the Rebirth of India are not only more profitable than the ones in 1991 but the gains could come faster too.
Meanwhile, in the video below, Tanushree talks in great detail about pharma sector. She tells us where the sector stands now and also about the potential for a rebound.
Watch Now...
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