Apollo Hospitals hits 34-month low

The stock slipped 7% to Rs 1,069, its lowest level since October 23, 2014 on BSE in intra-day trade.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise has slipped 7% to Rs 1,069, its lowest level since October 23, 2014 on BSE, in an otherwise firm market.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) on Wednesday fixed the price for primary knee replacement of titanium alloy at Rs 38,740 while the price for revision knee replacement of any material was pegged at Rs 62,770.

"It is noticed that orthopedic knee implants are having unjustified, unreasonable and irrational high trade margins leading to their exorbitant prices, which affects the out-of-pocket expenses of patients and lakhs of patients are not able to pay for arthoplasty procedures due to exorbitant prices," said the NPPA notification. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT

Meanwhile, in past three trading sessions, the stock of healthcare services company tanked 12% after the company’s net profit more-than-halved in June 2017 quarter (Q1FY18).

The standalone net profit of the company declined 51% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 35 crore from Rs 72 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. Income from operations grew 15% to Rs 1,684 crore from Rs 1,465 crore in year ago quarter.

“Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declined 7% YoY to Rs 165 crore, affected by regulations on stent pricing, loss from its newly operational Mumbai hospital, higher doctor guaranteed fees and one-time settlement charges,” analyst at Elara Capital said in quarterly update.

The company says price rationalization will take at least 3-4 quarters to recover from the impact of regulations on stent pricing, added report.

At 02:46 pm; the stock was down 7% at Rs 1,076 on BSE, as compared to 0.31% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter jumped nearly four-fold with a combined 1.28 million shares changed hands on BSE and NSE so far.