Pharma stocks were on a bullish note despite overall bearish tone of the benchmarks. The Nifty Pharma index gains~2% after India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive pick up pace. Auro Pharma led the gains by hitting a fresh 52-week high of Rs1,023.70 per piece during intraday trade on Monday. Cipla also gained ~5%.

At around 2.48 pm, Nifty Pharma was trading at 12,781.35 up 239.25 points or 1.91%, after touching a high of 12,867.85

Auro Pharma saw huge buying sentimedn on report that the government has given the company approval under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for promotion of domestic manufacturing of critical bulk drugs. The PLI scheme aims at promotion of manufacturing of critical key starting materials (KSMs)/drug intermediates and APIs in the country. 

Auro Pharma gained ~8% to trade at Rs997.30 per piece. Cipla was higher by 4.55%.

Sun Pharma (up 2.41%) and Cadila (up 1.69%) also made significant gains to drive the Nifty Pharma Index.

Dr Reddy 1.24% higher while Lupin and Divis Lab traded in the green.

Biocon (down 2.21%) led the laggards list while Torrent Pharma was 1.86% on the downside.

Alkem Lab was trading flat.

Overall, the Nifty Pharma index had 7 advances and 3 declines.