Pharma stocks under pressure; BSE Healthcare slips 150 points

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Lupin, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Divi's Laboratories are down 3-4% on the BSE.

Shares of pharmaceutical companies are under pressure with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), S&P BSE Healthcare index has dipped over 150 points in late noon deals.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Lupin, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Divi’s Laboratories have declined 3-4%, while Biocon, Ipca Laboratories, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Cipla are down 1-2% on the BSE.

The BSE pharmaceutical index S&P BSE Healthcare, the largest loser among sectoral indices, is down nearly 2% or 178 points at 10,079 compared to a marginal 6 points fall in benchmark S&P BSE Sensex at 1440 hours.

In past three trading sessions, the healthcare index was down 2.4% against 1.4% rise in benchmark index.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), who have poured in nearly Rs 18,000 crore in the stock markets so far in the year, are betting big on cyclical stocks like banking, realty and infrastructure.

As per recent regulatory data, FIIs bought a net Rs 3,048 crore in Indian banks, while selling a net of Rs 4,868 crore in pharmaceutical and biotechnology shares, which also include the GSK Pharma deal, this month as of March 15.

Among the individual stocks Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has dipped 4% to Rs 555 on the BSE. Lupin ahs slipped 3.5% at Rs 930, while Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Divi’s Laboratories are down 3% each at Rs 2,641 and Rs 1,375 respectively.