Aarti Industries gained 4 per cent after Motilal Oswal started coverage with a "buy" rating and a target of Rs 630.
Vivimed Labs was up 3.1 per cent after selling certain products for Rs 380 crore.
Sun Pharma Advanced Research gained 2.4 per cent on value buying for a second day after recent falls on US FDA revoking approval seizure drug over compliance issues.
Glenmark was up 0.8 per cent on hopes of price hikes in some of the key products.
BSE' sub-index for healthcare stocks was up 1.3 per cent vs 0.8 per cent rise in the benchmark BSE index.