Pharma shares in focus; Sun Pharma gains 4% in intra-day deals

STOCK MARKET - Shares of pharmaceutical companies were in focus, trading higher by up to 7% on the bourses in otherwise range-bound market. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Unichem Laboratories, Ipca Laboratories, Wockhardt, Marksans Pharma, Cadila Healthcare and Aurobindo Pharma were up in the range of 3% to 8%.

At 12:18 PM; Nifty Pharma index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, was up 2.6% as compared to 0.02% decline in the Nifty 50 index. The S&P BSE Healthcare index too up 2% against 0.22% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Sun Pharma was up 4.5% to Rs 555 in intra-day trade, extending its Thursday’s 1.5% gain on the BSE, after the company said its subsidiary has received approval from the US health regulator to market generic version of GSK's Coreg CR, extended release capsules in the American market.

Meanwhile, Indian pharmaceutical companies are expected to post better results in the second quarter as compared to the first quarter of the current fiscal, following recovery in the domestic business and several launches in the US market, a report says.

“Pharma companies would report a sequential respite in earnings as domestic business stages a rebound after Goods and Service Tax (GST)-led woes dampened what was already a bruising US operating environment in the previous quarter. YoY we still expect pain to linger as an elevated 10-12% price erosion and high base of F17 lead to unfavourable comparison,” analyst at IIFL Wealth Management said in Q2FY18 result preview.