Asian stock markets are lower today as Japanese and Hong Kong shares fall. The Nikkei 225 is off 1.2% while the Hang Seng is down 1%. The Shanghai Composite is trading down by 0.4%. US stocks dropped on Monday as global jitters from Turkey's plummeting currency spread to Wall Street, with the S&P 500 and the Dow falling for the fourth session in a row.

Back home, India share markets have opened the day on a higher note. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 137 points while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 44 points. The BSE Mid Cap index opened and BSE Small Cap index opened the day up by 0.4% & 0.5% respectively.

The rupee is currently trading at 69.47 to the US$.

Barring capital goods' stocks, all sectoral indices have opened the in green with metal stocks and realty stocks witnessing maximum buying interest.

In the news from the pharma sector. As per an article in a leading financial daily, Cadila Healthcare on Monday said it will acquire 51% stake in Windlass Healthcare for Rs 1.6 billion.

Reportedly, objective of this investment is to expand pharma manufacturing footprint.

Meanwhile, Cadila Healthcare on Monday posted over three-fold jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 4.6 billion for the quarter ended 30 June 2018 on account of robust sales. Its net profit was Rs 1.4 billion in the year-ago period. Further, the acquisition, all in cash, will be completed by the end of September 2018. Windlass Healthcare has reported sales of Rs 333.1 million for fiscal 2018.

Note that, Windlas Healthcare has a robust manufacturing infrastructure with USFDA inspected oral solids manufacturing facility. It also has a dedicated R&D facility for formulations development and has developed four first-to-file ANDAs in the last two years. The strategic deal allows Cadila Healthcare to expand its existing manufacturing base.

To know more about the company, you can access to Cadila Healthcare's latest result analysis and Cadila Healthcare's stock analysis on our website.

Cadila Healthcare share price opened the day down by 1.2%.

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

Now you can also listen to our Indian Stock Market Wrapup. Just visit SoundCloud, iTunes or Stitcher and access our free weekly podcast. Happy listening!

Moving on to the news from the economy. After several months of worrisome macroeconomic data and amid a free-falling rupee, finally, there is some good news for the economy on the inflation front. The July retail inflation has come at a nine-month low of 4.17% with the decline seen across most segments.

Retail Inflation Eases in July

Going by the CSO data, inflation in vegetables declined by 2.19% in July, compared to 7.8% in June. The rate of price rise in fruits slowed down 6.98%, as against over 10% in the previous month.

The inflation in protein-rich items like meat and fish, and also milk was slower in July compared to the previous month. However, inflation in the 'fuel and light' segment increased to 7.96% from 7.14 in the previous month.

This is encouraging given that the sharp fall in July inflation numbers come with food, vegetable prices and pulses exhibiting visibly a sharp drop.

Market participants expect that if the August print too come at around 4% or even below, there is an expectation that the monetary policy committee (MPC) will not be in a tearing hurry to go for another rate hike in the October policy review.

The MPC might then wait till early next year to assess other risk factors, mainly the full impact of minimum support prices (MSP), volatile exchange rate scenario and other external factors. But, not everyone subscribes to this view.

One worrying factor is that core inflation, or non-food, non-oil manufacturing inflation continues to be high. In July, the figure stood at 5.82% and has remained elevated above 5% for the last eight months.

If this continues, coupled with upside risks from exchange rate and external factors, these are enough reasons for the MPC to affect another rate cut in October itself. In this context, August numbers will be watched closely.