Pharma shares extend gain; Sun Pharma, Divi's Lab up over 10% in three days

In past three trading sessions, Nifty Pharma index surged 6%, while S&P BSE Healthcare gain 5% against 1% rise in the benchmark indices.

Shares of pharmaceutical companies were trading higher for the third straight session with Sun Pharmaceutical Company and Divi’s Laboratories gaining more than 10% each.

At 09:57 AM; the Nifty Pharma (up 2%) and S&P BSE Healthcare index (up 1.8%) were up nearly 2% each, against 0.3% rise in Nifty 50 and in S&P BSE Sensex. In the past three trading sessions, the Nifty Pharma index surged 6%, while the S&P BSE Healthcare gained 5% against 1% rise in the benchmark indices.

Divi’s Laboratories was up 4% to Rs 865 on BSE in intra-day trade, extending its 19% rally of the last four trading sessions.  

According to a media reports, the company has re-invited US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for reinspection of Unit-II, which comprises of 60-65% of total sales for the company.

Analysts at Dolat Capital believe that strong technical background of the management would have played a crucial role for all the filings and an early resolution of the import alert compared to the normal industry average.

“Considering, better clarity on the required response expected by USFDA as the management has already done its one-on-one meeting with US FDA and we also believe that strong technical background of the management would have played a crucial role for all filings. The company has filed all the response with the US FDA and we have already seen clause 99-32 of the import alert being lifted,” the brokerage firm said in Q1 result update.

Sun Pharma was up 4% to Rs 524 in early morning trade, extending its 7% gains of last two days on the back of heavy volumes. A combined 4.55 million shares have already changed hands on the counter in the first 45 minutes of trade on the NSE and BSE.

Sun Pharma is India’s top drug maker and world's fourth largest specialty generic pharmaceutical company by revenue with 42 manufacturing facilities spread across 6 continents. US contribute 37% to the revenues.

The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 433 last month, falling 46% from its 52-week high of Rs 798 touched in September 2016, after the company reported a poor set of numbers.

“Sun Pharma’s weak results over the past year and FY18 guidance (single-digit percentage decline and EBITDA 20-22% in 2HFY18) highlight the uncertainty in the US generic environment, lag in spending for specialty vs revenue ramp-up and incorporate a delay of Halol clearance into FY19,” according to analyst at JP Morgan.

“While we still see Sun as being the best positioned to transition into specialty pharma over the medium term, we believe near-term headwinds could give us a better entry point to focus on the upside from specialty, which will contribute meaningfully only from FY20. Stable and then sustained improvement in operating performance and clearance of the Halol facility will likely be key drivers for the stock from here,” the foreign brokerage said in recent report.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories was up nearly 2% to Rs 2,250, gaining 4% in the past two trading sessions after the company said that it’s wholly-owned subsidiary Aurigene Discovery Technologies has planned to initiate phase 2 clinical trials of oral small molecule CA-170 that targets cancer. The trials will be conducted at various sites in India, Dr Reddy's said in a filing to BSE.

COMPANY	LATEST	1-WK BEFORE	GAIN(%)
DIVI'S LAB.	863.65	694.75	24.3
IPCA LABS.	483.00	420.00	15.0
NATCO PHARMA	789.30	718.75	9.8
CAPLIN POINT LAB	702.75	647.90	8.5
SUN PHARMA.INDS.	518.70	480.05	8.1
WOCKHARDT	656.05	613.80	6.9
MARKSANS PHARMA	42.60	40.15	6.1
ASTRAZENECA PHAR	961.60	907.60	6.0
STRIDES SHASUN	972.85	922.40	5.5
PIRAMAL ENTERP.	2824.35	2702.35	4.5
SUVEN LIFE SCIE.	168.55	161.40	4.4
JUBILANT LIFE	712.90	683.20	4.4
AUROBINDO PHARMA	771.00	740.20	4.2
LUPIN	1015.05	977.55	3.8