The Nifty Pharma Index came under pressure on Thursday led by a widespread selloff with heavyweights registering a free fall. The performance comes as the major pharmaceutical companies report their financial performance for the second quarter of fiscal 22. With the exception of Torrent Pharma and IPCA Lab, all other stocks listed on Nifty Pharma are in the red.
Nifty Pharma traded between an intraday high and low of 13,901.35 and 13,704.80 respectively. At around 2:49 p.m., Nifty Pharma yielded 13,707.20 less by 204.10 points or 1.47%. In the index, 18 scripts decreased while only 2 advanced.
Investors made gains in the sector despite a sharp slowdown in active Covid-19 cases and a strong vaccination campaign pace. The sector is said to be out of the pressure caused by the pandemic and business is now back to normal. Experts have re-rated pharmaceutical companies as the underlying business is strong.
Natco Pharma was the main bear on the index, plummeting more than 6.1% before its second-quarter earnings. Laurus Labs followed with a 4.9% drop. Strides Pharma fell 3.3%.
APL Apollo lost almost 2.9%, while stocks such as Granules, Aurobindo Pharma and Sun Pharma fell more than 2% each.
Cadila Healthcare fell more than 1.9% and Divis Lab fell almost 1.6%. Glenmark, Pfizer and Cipla each plummeted more than 1%.
Gland Pharma and Alkem Lab each fell 0.9%. Biocon and Lupine dipped 0.8% and 0.6%. Abbot India fell 0.5%. Dr. Reddy's lab was down 0.4%.
On the positive front, Torrent Pharma and IPCA Lab were up slightly.
According to data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today, with the administration of 57,54,817 doses of vaccine in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed the milestone of 110 Cr (1.10 , 23,34,225) and interim reports until 7 am today. This has been achieved through 1,12,38,854 sessions.
The recovery of 13,878 patients in the past 24 hours has increased the cumulative count of recovered patients (since the onset of the pandemic) to 3,38,00,925. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 98.25%.
13,091 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. Currently, the number of active cases is 1,38,556 and is the lowest in 266 days. Active cases currently constitute 0.40% of the country's total positive cases, which is the lowest since March 2020.
