NEW DELHI: Pharma stocks Divi's Laboratories (down 0.86 per cent), Aurobindo Pharma (down 0.69 per cent) and Biocon (down 0.47 per cent) were trading in the red in afternoon trade on Wednesday, keeping the sectoral index down.

The Nifty Pharma index was trading 0.16 per cent down at 8,739 around 01:25 pm (IST).

Shares of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (down 0.44 per cent), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 0.24 per cent) and Cipla (down 0.11 per cent) were also in the red.

However, Piramal Enterprises (up 0.85 per cent), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.52 per cent) and Lupin (up 0.15 per cent) were trading up.

Buying in select auto, telecom, bank, IT and metal stocks lifted benchmark indices up.

The NSE Nifty50 index was up 42 points at 10,759, while the BSE Sensex was up 166 points at 35,383.

Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty index, 31 were trading in the green, while 19 were in the red.

Tata Motors, Bharti Infratel, YES Bank, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries were leading the pack of Nifty gainers.

However, BPCL, Ultra Tech Cement, HPCL, State Bank of India and Maruti Suzuki were the top losers in the Nifty index.