Tale of the Tape 

Howdy folks. Thank god the weekend is finally here! 

Markets tanked for a sixth straight day with the Nifty (-1%) and Sensex (-0.9%) seeing deep cuts. This officially makes this the worst week for stocks in 7 months. Broader markets got KO-ed as Midcaps (-2.1%) and Smallcaps (-2.3%) came under heavy selling pressure. A whopping 452 stocks in the NSE 500 ended in the red today.

Not a single sector ended higher. IT stocks (-2.5%) led the sell-off, followed by Pharma (-2.1%) and Metals (-1.9%).

In today’s issue of the Daily Rip, we break down how Trump’s new tariff threat may hurt some pharma firms, analyse TruAlt Bioenergy’s IPO, and the top newsmakers.

Honourable Mentions:

Vodafone-Idea tanked -7% after the SC deferred the AGR to October 6. Asian Paints (-3%) was under pressure after CLSA said it sees a further -18% correction from current levels. 

Check out the NSE 500 heatmap:

Markets
Trump Targets Pharma

Pharma stocks were under pressure after Trump announced a whopping 100% tariff on all branded & patented drugs. FYI - Wockhardt (-6% intraday), Sun Pharma (-3%) and Biocon (-3%) got whacked the most. Here’s why.

For the unaware, most of the sector got off easy. That’s because Trump isn’t targeting generics; he’s looking at the top-end, innovative stuff and wants it to be manufactured in the US. 

Unfortunately, this punishes the handful of Indian companies that are actually trying to move up the value chain. Take Sun Pharma which was the top Nifty loser. Its ‘branded’ aka speciality portfolio accounted for ~20% of its FY25 revenue out of which 70%-80% came from the US market. Most of this was due to insane growth in its dermatology & ophthalmology divisions. So yes, theoretically this could be affected by Trump’s order. Ditto with Wockhardt which has been moving away from generics to its own antibiotic formulations. And some firms like Biocon have always been in the patented business.

That said, most of the stock-specific movement today is a knee-jerk reaction. After all, Trump said these tariffs won't apply to companies that make them in the US. And guess what? Both Sun Pharma and Biocon have manufacturing plants in the US. And as for Wockhardt, its new antibiotic drug will be made in Europe and come under 15% tariffs as part of the EU-US trade deal. So wait for companies to respond before taking a decision either way. 

Big Picture: Some of today’s pressure is because the market is in a gloomy, ‘sell-on-rise’ mood.  But experts say this could just be the start of harsher tariffs against the pharma sector. Until now we thought Trump wouldn’t touch BIG PHARMA -- given its impact on millions of Americans -- but at this point anything is on the table. 

Specials
What Next For BSE?

BSE has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. The stock is down -25% from its all-time high but is the worst behind us or is there more pain in store? Find out as we break down the company’s pros & cons, fundamentals and brokerage views in our latest video..