Pharma stocks were under some pressure in the morning trade following the issue of Drug Price Control Order by the Central Government which is likely to impact drug prices.
But there was no panic selling in the stocks in the CNX Pharma index, with losses limited to less than Rs 10 in most of the stocks other than Dr Reddy's.
Cadilla Health Care, GSK Pharma and Divi's Lab shares were in the green in the opening minutes of trading. While Cadila gained Rs 6.05 to trade at Rs 838, Divi's was up by Rs 3.65 to trade at Rs 1,133. GSK was up marginally by Rs 1.90 at Rs 2,273.
The stocks to shed some value included Sun Pharma which lost Rs 5.75 at Rs 963.10 and Cipla, Rs 4.35 at Rs 417.75. Lupin was down by Rs 6.65 at Rs 800 and Glenmark shed Rs 10.50 to trade at Rs 566.65 Dr.Reddy's, which lost Rs 32.95, was quoting at 2,086.
The 10-share CNX Pharma was down by 66 points. But it was too early to say how the market would respond since the financial implications of the Government's decision on the pharma companies are yet to be analysed. But the DPCO covers a wide spectrum of medicines for some of the most prevalent diseases like diabetes, cardiac problems, cancer etc.