NEW DELHI: Strong gains in SMS Pharmaceuticals (up 6.82 per cent), Ipca Laboratories (up 5.69 per cent), Suven Life Sciences (up 3.38 per cent) and Medicamen Biotech (up 3.08 per cent) lifted BSE Healthcare index into the green zone in Tuesday's early trade.

The S&P BSE Healthcare was trading 0.41 per cent up at 13,679 around 10:30 am (IST).

Wockhardt (up 2.34 per cent), Caplin Point Laboratories (up 2.30 per cent), Aarti Drugs (up 2.08 per cent), Merck (up 1.92 per cent), Thyrocare Technologies (up 1.74 per cent), Gufic BioSciences (up 1.67 per cent) and Divi's Laboratories (up 1.67 per cent) were also among the gainers.

However, Orchid Pharma (down 4.08 per cent), Poly Medicure (down 2.71 per cent), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (down 1.62 per cent), Granules India (down 0.71 per cent), Novartis India (down 0.70 per cent), Cipla (down 0.59 per cent) and Cadila Healthcare (down 0.52 per cent) were losing in trade.

Weak Asian peers and selling in bank, FMCG and IT stocks dragged equity benchmarks.

Nifty50 index was trading around 9,840, while Sensex was hovering near 31,550-level.

Shares of JP Associates, Aurobindo Pharma, Indiabulls Real Estate, Unitech, Suzlon Energy, HDIL, Aban Offshore, Jain Irrigation, DLF, Infibeam Incorporation, GMR Infra were among the most traded stocks on the National Stock Exchange in Tuesday's trade.

On the NSE, 981 stocks were advancing, compared with 598 stocks declining and 385 stocks remaining unchanged.

On BSE, 1,259 stocks were advancing whereas 779 stocks were lagging and 94 stocks were appearing unchanged.

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