Indian share markets gave up its early gains during the afternoon session and were trading below the dotted line. Losses are largely seen in metal stocks, software stocks, and auto stocks. While, capital goods stocks and bank stocks traded in green.

The BSE Sensex is trading lower by 45 points and the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 20 points. Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is down by 0.3% & the BSE Small Cap index is up by 0.3%. The rupee is trading at 64.32 to the US$.

Pharma stocks are trading on a mixed note with Biocon Ltd share price and Torrent Pharma share price leading the losses.

Natco Pharma share price was trading up by 1.4% in the noon session after it was reported that the company has received successful Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for the inspection conducted at its drug formulations facility at Kothur Unit, Telangana, India, during the period Jan 16th - 24th, 2017. This Kothur formulation facility predominantly caters to regulated international markets, including the US.

Expediting Drug Approval Process to be a Positive for Industry

The BSE Healthcare Index is down in two years. This is a mighty fall compared to the benchmark index, which is up 11% during the same period. A downgrade in the earnings estimates has led to a selloff in the pharma space, which has led to a contraction in the price to earnings ratio (PE) of the pharma index.

The PE ratio of the Nifty Pharma Index for a five-year period stands at 46 times. This ratio has contracted to 35 times currently. The headwinds being faced by this sector, have led to such lethal contraction.

In this dull scenario, there appears to be some respite as the USFDA has expedited the drug approval process. Drug approvals for Indian companies have gone up 50% in the period from January to June 2017 compared to the same period last year.

In news from economy, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that it will expand the tax net, and 'inspector raj' and bring down prices of goods for the common man describing newly implemented Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a win-win situation for all.

Pitching the GST as a measure beneficial for the country, he said that prices of goods have come down between 4-8% since roll-out of new indirect tax regime from July 1 and the real effect could be felt after three months.

Jaitley said that the GST was in the interest of people and states as well, as the latter will get 80% of the revenue leading to more development. He also said that there was no longer tax on tax and the transport of goods across the country was going unhindered now.

Finance Minister further added that more than 1 crore firms will be migrating to the new tax regime against around 80 lakh companies earlier. He said tax net has expanded and the country's market has been integrated. Besides, inspector raj is over and the tax burden on the masses has gone down.

Meanwhile, Kotak Mahindra Bank share price was trading marginally up by 0.2% after the company reported a 23% YoY rise in standalone net profit at Rs 9.12 billion for the June quarter, up from Rs7.41 billion a year ago.

The bank said that it has total exposure of Rs 2.36 billion to four of 12 accounts identified by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for insolvency proceedings. All these four accounts were inherited from ING Vysya Bank during merger in April 2015.