Nifty Pharma index hits 7-week high; Divi's Lab zooms over 50% in one month

Shares of pharmaceutical companies continued trading higher for the second straight session, with Nifty Pharma index hitting seven-week high on Thursday, on positive corporate announcements from Divi’s Laboratories and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.

Besides these two pharmaceutical stocks, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Lupin, Cadila Healthcare, Cipla and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries were trading higher in the range of 2% to 4% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The pharma index hit 9,593 on the NSE in intra-day trade, was trading at its highest level since August 1, 2017. At 12:18 PM; Nifty Pharma index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, was up 2.9% as compared to 0.47% decline in the Nifty 50 index.

In past one month, the pharma index surged 13% as against 3% rise in the benchmark index. The S&P BSE Healthcare index, too, was up 10% as compared 3% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories was the largest gainer, trading 5% higher at Rs 2,423 after the company announced that its formulations plant in Srikakulam in state of Andhra Pradesh received an establishment inspection report (EIR) from U.S. Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA). In May 25, 2017, the USFDA had made the audit of the Unit II formulations facility with zero observations.

Analysts at JP Morgan believe the stock provides an attractive opportunity to focus on upside from newsflow on the regulatory front and medium-term upside from monetization of its limited competition pipeline.

“We factor in INR appreciation and the uncertain environment in the US, but believe that Dr Reddy’s is likely to see earnings bottoming out before its peers,” the brokerage firm said in latest report with maintain ‘overweight’ rating on the stock with target price of Rs 2,900.

Orchid Pharma was locked in upper circuit of 20% at Rs 21.45, after the company said it also received an EIR report from USFDA on the successful inspection of the active pharmaceutical (API) manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. This facility was inspected by USFDA in May 2017.

Divi’s Laboratories surged 6% to Rs 999 in intra-day trade, extending its Wednesday’s 9% rally after the company said that its Unit-2 plant in Visakhapatnam, which has been under import alert for the past six months, has resolved all issues related to the observations made by the USFDA in its latest CGMP audit. In past one month the stock zoomed 61% from Rs 622 on August 21.

COMPANY	LATEST	1-MONTH BEFORE	GAIN(%)
DIVI'S LAB.	976.00	622.45	56.8
DR REDDY'S LABS	2434.00	1933.15	25.9
MARKSANS PHARMA	46.90	37.50	25.1
WOCKHARDT	660.30	538.95	22.5
IPCA LABS.	502.00	409.75	22.5
SUVEN LIFE SCIE.	194.35	164.55	18.1
SUN PHARMA.INDS.	520.75	460.55	13.1
NATCO PHARMA	815.00	723.70	12.6
LUPIN	1038.25	922.80	12.5
STRIDES SHASUN	1001.50	900.40	11.2