Market Now: Pharma stocks in pain; Dr. Reddy's Labs leads losers' pack

Most pharma stocks were appearing to be in pain during afternoon trade on Thursday. 

The Nifty Pharma index was trading 1.20 per cent down at 8,600 around 02:10 pm, with only shares of Lupin (up 0.24 per cent) marginally up. 

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories was the top loser in the pharma pack, cracking almost 3 per cent. 

It was followed by Piramal Enterprises (down 1.75 per cent), Cadila HealthcareNSE -0.34 % (down 1.65 per cent), CiplaNSE -1.81 % (down 1.34 per cent), Sun Pharmaceutical IndustriesNSE -1.64 % (down 1.18 per cent), Glenmark PharmaceuticalsNSE -1.47 % (down 1.06 per cent), Biocon (down 1.05 per cent) and Aurobindo PharmaNSE -2.92 % (down 0.87 per cent), in that order. 

Equity benchmarks were flat as gains in select bank, oil and auto stocks were offset by losses in FMCG, power, Pharma and metal stocks. 

The NSE Nifty50 index was down 7 points at 10,734, while the BSE Sensex was up 8 points at 35,327. 

Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty index, 20 were trading in the green, while 30 were in the red. 

Indiabulls Housing Finance, Power Grid and Tata Motors were the top losers in the Nifty index.