Pharma shares in demand; Healthcare index hits new high

Sun Pharma, Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's Lab, Lupin, Glenmark, Wockhardt and Cadila Healtchare gained 1-8% on BSE.

Shares of frontline pharmaceutical companies are in demand on the bourses with the BSE Healthcare index hitting new high in an otherwise weak market today.

S&P Healthcare index, gauge of pharmaceutical companies, has surged 1% or 130 points compared to nearly 1% or 185 points decline in benchmark S&P BSE Sensex at 1400 hours. The healthcare index hit a record high of 12,070 in intra-day.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Lupin, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Wockhardt, Cadila Healtchare and Cipla gained between 1% and 8% on the BSE.

Sun Pharma (up 3% at Rs 772) and Lupin (up 2.5% at Rs 1,122) hit their respective new highs on BSE.

Ranbaxy has surged 3% to Rs 579, also its fresh 52-week high after the company said it has signed a licensing agreement with Canada’s Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc to exclusively market, sell and distribute Cipher’s isotretinoin capsules in Brazil.

The agreement extends the current relationship with Cipher, under which Ranbaxy is marketing and distributing Cipher’s isotretinoin product in the US under the brand Absorica.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has rallied 6% to Rs 633 on reporting a strong 44% year-on-year jump in consolidated profit at Rs 185 crore on back of strong revenue growth for the quarter ended June 2014. The company had profit of Rs 129 crore in year ago quarter.

For the first quarter ended June 30, 2014, Glenmark’s consolidated revenue was at Rs 1,487 crore as against Rs 1,238 crore in the corresponding quarter recording a growth of 20%. EBITDA or operating profit margins improved 300 basis points to 23% from 20%.

Wockhardt zoomed 8% to Rs 711 on back of over four-fold jump in trading volumes. The stock opened at Rs 666 and touched a high of Rs 720 on BSE. A combined 8.95 million shares changed hands on the counter till 1410 hours on NSE and BSE. In past one week, the stock rallied 21% compared to 1.7% rise in the benchmark index.