After opening the day marginally lower, share markets in India have continued the downtrend and are currently trading below the dotted line. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note with stocks in the realty sector and stocks in the capital sector trading in green, while stocks in the metals sector are leading the losses.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 82 points (down 0.3%), and the NSE Nifty is trading down by 38 points (down 0.4%). Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.1%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.3%. The rupee is trading at 64.61 to the US$.

In news from stocks in the pharma sector. Cadila Healthcare share price is in focus today as the company's Moraiya facilty received establishment inspection report (EIR) from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

Notably, the company's facility at Moraiya, Ahmedabad had completed the USFDA audit from February 6-15 with zero 483 observations.

Post the audit in February, the group, so far, has received approvals for four drugs that have been filed from its Moraiya facility.

The drugmaker has over 115 approvals and 300 ANDAs since the commencement of the filing process in FY04.

Recently, Cadila Healthcare Ltd has become India's second-most valuable pharmaceutical company in terms of market capitalization, beating drug makers like Lupin Ltd, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd and Cipla Ltd that have much higher revenues. Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries continues to be the most valued pharma company in India with a market cap of Rs 1.22 trillion.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry has come under a lot of regulatory pressure in the past few years.

The sector has faced great volatility over the years.

Volatility in the Pharma Sector

We had written about the current predicament of Indian pharma companies in one of the premium editions of the 5 Minute WrapUp:

• Over the past few years, risk in the US markets has increased. The US Food and Drug Administration has become stricter on products entering US borders. Surprise inspections have increased and companies are being issued warning letters. This has impacted the business and earnings of Indian pharma players, causing major volatility for the sector.

However, such gloom and doom scenarios are bound to create opportunities in select safe stocks. The prudent thing to do is to remain focused and patient for both opportunities to come as well as to play out completely.

Moving on to news from stocks in the steel sector. SAIL share price is in focus today after the steel minister denied speculations about the PSU taking over debt-ridden Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd.

In March, it was reported that the government was examining the possibility of country's largest steel maker SAIL undertaking 'operation and maintenance' of ailing Monnet Ispat till the lenders find a buyer for the company.

However, the speculation was put to rest after the steel minister's comments.

Notably, Monnet Ispat forms a part of the 12 accounts the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has named to face bankruptcy proceedings. Interestingly steel companies make up for a bulk of this list.

These 12 accounts referred by the RBI have an exposure of more than Rs 50 billion each, with 60% or more classified as bad loans by banks as of March 2016.

According to RBI, these 12 accounts owe Rs 2.5 trillion to the system, which constitutes around 25% of gross bad loans.

Since these are large accounts and involve multiple banks, the lenders will try to take a common view on all administrative requirements before referring these accounts to the NCLT.

Bad loan recovery has gathered momentum after years of hesitation since the government empowered RBI to direct banks to take big defaulters through the process prescribed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) that specifies time bound resolution.

Banks that have been hesitant to follow this route fearing huge write-downs of asset values have been forced get cracking following the Reserve Bank's directive.

The steel minister said that steel companies in the list will be complying with norms under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

While these are steps in the right direction for better accountability in the sector, the RBI has a lot to do if it plans to strengthen India's banking sector, which is reeling under large non-performing assets (NPAs).