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Informist, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025

 

By Anjana Therese Antony

 

MUMBAI – Traders placed short bets on futures and options contracts of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories ahead of the company's September quarter results due Friday. While the pharma player's bottom line and top line for the quarter are likely to grow from the year-ago period, its US business' performance and margins are likely to take a hit due to the sharp erosion in drug prices and the fall in sales due to competition in the high-margin cancer treatment drug Revlimid, various broking firms said. 

 

The company's consolidated net profit is likely to grow 11% on year in the reporting quarter to INR 13.9 billion and revenue is expected to rise 8% to INR 87 billion, according to the average of estimates from 10 broking firms. From the quarter-ago period, this would mean a 2?ll in its bottom line and a mere 1% growth in the top line. 

 

Shares of the company closed 0.7% lower at INR 1,279.40 on the National Stock Exchange. The volume of the stock traded was 2 million shares, higher than the 1.4 million shares traded Monday. The near-term support for the stock is seen at INR 1,260-INR 1,240 and resistance at INR 1,300-INR 1,310. 

 

Premiums on INR 1,290-INR 1,310 call contracts expiring on Nov. 25, which are 1-2% higher than the spot level, fell 12-15% and those on INR 1,270-INR 1,260 put strikes rose 7-20%, indicating the near-term caution about the stock's price movement. Traders also added bearish bets in the futures series of Dr. Reddy's Labs. The November contract closed 0.5% lower at INR 1,287 and open interest rose over 280% to 4.96 million. 

 

The overall domestic equity market extended its winning run for the sixth session in a row and hit its new one-year high Thursday. Though the Nifty 50 surpassed the psychologically important 26000 points during the day, it failed to sustain above this level as investors booked profits amid expensive valuations. The Nifty 50 ended 0.1% higher at 25891.40 points and the BSE Sensex ended 0.2% higher at 84556.40 points. These headline indices are almost 2% away from their record intraday highs hit in September last year. 

 

A significant turnaround in earnings growth and a trade deal between the US and India are among the key triggers that investors are waiting for. Many analysts continue to believe that the domestic market is still expensive and the failure of a correction leaves less room for a good entry point for investors. However, the second half of the current financial year is expected to be better than the first half and market experts continue to believe that corporate earnings growth will pick up pace in the coming quarters. This will likely be supported by higher government capital expenditure, a boost from the reduction in goods and services tax, and expectations of a lower tariff burden from the US, particularly for exporting players. 

 

--Nifty 50 October closed at 25950.00, up 43.70 points; 58.60-point premium to the spot index

--Nifty 50 November closed at 26091.80, up 52.70 points; 200.40-point premium to the spot index

--Nifty 50 December closed at 26263.00, up 68.20 points; 371.60-point premium to the spot index

 

HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Finance, Eternal, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Wipro, Larsen & Toubro, and Vedanta were the most actively traded underlying stocks Thursday.  End

 

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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