BSE Healthcare index up 2%; Cipla, Alkem, Dr.Reddy's rally up to 8%

Shares of pharmaceuticals and healthcare services were in demand on Friday , with the S&P BSE Healthcare index up over 2 per cent in an otherwise weak market, as investors shifted focus to pharma stocks amid the emergence of a new, highly mutated Covid-19 variant.

At 01:07 pm; the S&P BSE Healthcare index, the sole gainer among sectoral indices, was up 2.4 per cent at 25,936, as compared to 1.9 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The index had hit a record high of 26,979 on September 16, 2021.

Cipla, Alkem Laboratories, Dr. Lal PathLabs, AstraZeneca