Healthcare and pharma stocks took a hammering in the afternoon trading session on the markets on Friday.
The health care sectoral index was down 1.63 per cent at around 2.45 p.m. on the BSE while on the NSE the pharma index was down 2.07 per cent, the highest fall among all other sectoral indices.
On the NSE, Glenmark, Ranbaxy and Sun Pharma were the top losers in the pharma sector falling 4.14 per cent, 3.86 per cent and 3.59 per cent respectively at 2.55 p.m.
At the same time on the BSE, the top losers in the category comprised Glenmark Pharma, Orchid Chem and Sun Pharma which fell 4.44 per cent, 3.70 per cent and 3.38 per cent respectively.
The market sentiment was also affected by lower-than-expected net profit announced by Dr Reddy Labs in the fourth quarter. The company posted a net profit increase of 27.68 per cent for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 against the year-ago period.