In line with other major indices, Bombay Stock Exchange Health Care (BSE HC) index of major 18 pharmaceutical related companies went down below 6000 points for the first time in the last four months today. The BSE HC opened at 6077.33 in the morning session and could not receive any big buying support from investors on account of poor sentiment and touched to its intra-day low at 5,978.01 points. Out of 18 companies, share price of only two companies viz, Cadila Healthcare and Orchid Chemical moved up today.
The investors' sentiment hit by the downgrading of US economy by global credit rating agency Standard and Poor. The Indian pharma companies are focusing more on highly regulated markets like US and Europe and both regions are facing economic crisis in last few months, which is going to impact performance of Indian players. The BSE HC touched to its yearly high at 6871.32 on January 2011 and slowly moved down to present level despite better financial performance in FY2010-11 and first quarter ended June 2011.
The BSE Sensex of 30 major companies declined continuously during last few trading sessions. It opened today at 16,517 points and touched to intra-day low level at 16,432 points. However, the sensex closed at 16,858 points with loss of 132.27 points as compared to previous day close of 16,990.18 points.
The scrips of major Indian pharma entities like Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL), Cipla, Sun Pharma, Glenmark Pharma, Biocon, Aurobindo Pharma, Wockhardt, Divi's Labs, Strides Arcolab, Jubilant Life, etc. lost heavily in market capitalisation today. Similarly, multinational pharma companies like Ranbaxy, GSK Pharma, Aventis Pharma, Abbott India, AstraZeneca scrips lost grounds. However, Novartis managed a recovery in share price of Rs. 17.20 over previous closing price and touched to Rs. 842.60 today.
DRL scrip declined today by Rs. 53.95 and closed at Rs. 1,492.70 on BSE. Sun Pharma Rs. 1 face value scrip, which entered recently in the 30 companies of BSE Sensex, moved down by Rs. 13.40 to Rs. 484.50 from previous day's close of Rs. 497.90. Strides Arcolab scrip declined by 5.1 per cent or Rs. 17.15 to Rs. 317.45. Though, Wockhardt announced significant improved performance during the first quarter ended June 2011, the share price declined by over 6 per cent to Rs. 419.95. Jubilant Life Sciences scrip also suffered and lost by 4.7 per cent despite strong growth of 53 per cent in net profit during first quarter of FY2012. The analyst expressed that the share price slide is likely to continue in next few session on account of selling pressure.