Shares of frontline pharmaceutical companies are likely to remain subdued next week, as a strong rupee threatens to impede growth of export-driven drug ompanies, analysts said today. India's pharmaceutical industry has stood out with its indifference to the recent spurts in the broader market. BSE's healthcare index fell 0.3% this week, a period that saw benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty scale new heights.
The decline was led by heavyweights Ranbaxy Laboratories, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Cipla. The sector may continue to remain an underperformer. Expectations that large companies will have no significant earnings growth for the current fiscal have dampened sentiments," Shahina Mukudam, an analyst with IDBI
Capital, said.
Capital, said.
Earnings of these companies are seen subdued this financial year on account of the high base of 2006-07, and their dependence on dollar revenues in the face of a relentlessly shooting rupee. The rupee today ended at 39.89 to a U.S. dollar, after touching nearly a 10-year high of 39.88 Thursday. The Indian unit has risen over 9% during the current financial year.
"Shares of those companies that are not dependent on exports are likely to see some action in times to come. I expect Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals and Indoco Remedies to gain some momentum," Surya N. Patra, an analyst with domestic brokerage Sharekhan said. "There seems to be no trigger for pharmaceutical shares, but news on mergers and acquisitions can certainly fire them up," Mukudam of IDBI Capital said.
Thursday's closing share prices, in rupees, of leading pharmaceutical companies on the National Stock Exchange, compared with a week earlier:
| Company | Sep 21 | Sep 14 | Change% |
| Cadila Healthcare | 307.2 | 303.25 | 1.3 |
| Cipla | 167.45 | 172.1 | (-) 2.7 |
| Dr Reddy's Labs | 639.75 | 640.55 | (-) 0.1 |
| GlaxoSmithKline Pharma | 1,140.05 | 1,135.15 | 0.4 |
| Pfizer | 663.05 | 685.45 | (-) 3.3 |
| Ranbaxy Labs | 405.1 | 413.95 | (-) 2.1 |
| Sun Pharma | 972.8 | 996.7 | (-) 2.4 |
| BSE Healthcare Index | 3654.24 | 3665.56 | (-) 0.3 |
| Nifty | 4837.55 | 4518 | 7.1 |
| Sensex | 16564.23 | 15603.8 | 6.1 |
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