Pharma shares gain; Biocon, Granules hit record highs, Sun Pharma up 3%

At 10:27 am, Nifty Pharma index was up 1.5 per cent, as compared to 0.22 per cent decline in the benchmark Nifty50 index

Shares of pharmaceutical companies rallied up to 6 per cent on Friday in an otherwise range-bound market amid expectations that growth is picking up in the sector after two consecutive months of decline.

According to a report by ICICI Direct, the Indian Pharma market is back in the green posting 2.4 per cent YoY growth in June 2020. "Cardiac therapy grew 11.8 per cent (3.9 per cent in May), anti-diabetic was up 7 per cent (1.1 per cent in May) and respiratory grew 9.3 per cent (vs 5.9 per cent de-growth in May). Anti-infectives were flat YoY (down 0.1