After opening the day in green, share markets in India witnessed choppy trading activity throughout the day and are presently below the dotted line. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed with stocks in the pharma sector and stocks in the realty sector leading the losses, while stocks in the pharma sector are trading in green.

The BSE Sensex is down by 11 points (down 0.1%) and the NSE Nifty is trading down by 10 points (down 0.1%). Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 0.5%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading down by 0.6%. The rupee is trading at 67.35 to the US$.

In news from stocks in the pharma sector. Lupin share price is in focus today after the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) completed its inspection of the company's Nagpur facility with no integrity or repeat observations for the unit.

The US regulator completed the inspections with no observations and cleared the plant.

At the time of writing, Lupin share price was trading up by 1.5%.The company's Nagpur facility manufactures oral solid products.

BSE Healthcare Index Down 26% in Three Years

Is this the right time to buy pharma stocks?

There was a time when almost every stock in the pharma sector was considered to be a safe stock. You could just pick the top 5-6 companies from this sector and expect to make decent returns over time.

In fact, it was termed as defensive sector. However, in last two years, things have changed a lot. There is enormous uncertainty in the industry.

Uncertainty regarding price erosion in the United States as well as hostile US FDA visits, have changed a once defensive sector into a risky sector.

However, we believe this could be a point of consolidation in the industry i.e. with stricter norms, lower margins, and pricing pressure, the industry may see many exits and acquisitions. This could lead to relatively fewer but higher quality players.