3 reasons why pharma's 'underperformer' tag at markets could change soon

Resolution of supply chain issues, defensive buying and index inclusion are triggers

The Pharma sector has been an underperformer on the stock exchange during the last bull run. While the Nifty 50 has returned 45 per cent in the last 12 months and 5 per cent in the last 30 days, the Nifty Pharma index has returned 19.5 per cent and minus 5.6 per cent, respectively. This trend could change over the next three months, for several reasons.

The Nifty Pharma Index is being extensively reworked. As of September 30, it will track a total of 20 stocks, selected and weighted on the basis of free-float market capitalisation. That doubles the population