Asian equity markets are higher today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares show gains. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.34%, while the Hang Seng is up 0.61%. The Nikkei 225 is trading higher by 0.79%. US equities rose sharply on Tuesday as solid quarterly reports from several large-cap companies rolled through.

Meanwhile, share markets in India have opened the day on a firm note tracking global cues. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 86 points while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 30 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index have opened the day up by 0.3% & 0.5% respectively.

All the sectoral indices have opened the day in green with stocks from metal sector, IT sector and FMCG sector leading the gains. The rupee is trading at 64.28 to the US$.

Axis bank share price is trading higher by 1.7% ahead of its fourth quarter earnings. As per the reports, Axis Bank is expected to show dismal performance in the quarter as profit is seen falling sharply by 59.5% year-on-year to Rs 8.72 billion against Rs 21.54 billion.

Information technology stocks opened the day in green with Wipro (WIT) and Tech Mahindra witnessing maximum buying interest. Wipro Ltd on Tuesday reported a strong set of fourth-quarter earnings. The company's earnings beat street estimates to end a year in which India's three largest services firms all lagged behind the industry's average growth pace.

Wipro Limited announced a marginal increase in its net profit for the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2017 to Rs 22.67 billion as against Rs 22.57 billion in the same period the previous year. Net revenue for the quarter rose 5% to Rs 150.33 billion backed by other income of Rs 4.08 billion from the sale of its EcoEnergy business.

However, the company expects its IT services business to contract by 0%-2% in Q1 of FY18 primarily due to the impact in its healthcare and retail businesses. Wipro's muted outlook comes as Indian IT firms brace for new visa rules in the US and growing protectionism in countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

Further, Wipro announced plans for buyback of shares in July. It also announced a bonus issue in a 1:1 ratio. To know more about the company's financial performance, subscribers can access to Wipro's latest result analysis and Wipro stock analysis on our website.

Wipro share price opened the day up by 3.3%.

Moving on to the news from stocks in pharma sector. As per an article in a leading financial daily, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals announced that the US health regulator has cleared its investigational new drug (IND) application to initiate a first-in-human study for a proposed biosimilar for use in the treatment of respiratory or allergic disease.

US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has cleared the company's application of GBR 310. GBR 310 is a proposed biosimilar, which will assess its pharmacokinetics in comparison to Novartis anti-asthma biologic XOLAIR or omalizumab in healthy adult volunteers.

According to IMS sales data for the 12-month period ending February 2017, annual sales of XOLAIR 150 mg injection was approximately USD 1.7 billion in the US. This marks the second IND activation in 2017 for a growing respiratory portfolio of Glenmark Pharma.

Notably, Biosimilars and Biologics are burgeoning sectors in 2017 also major scientific and technological advances, coupled with socio-demographic changes and increasing demand for medicines will revive the pharma industry's fortunes in another 10 to 20 years. But given the complexity of biologics, will Indian companies be able to break some ground in this space? 

Moreover, according to a report by The Hindu Business Line, in spite of the prevailing challenges in the Indian pharma sector is expected to grow up to 45% by 2025 and 58,000 additional job opportunities are likely to be created in the industry.

Indian Pharma Revenue Growth Accelerates

In fact, by 2020, the pharma market will be touching US$55 billion, with a CAGR of about 15.9%, with generics occupying 70% market share followed by over-the-counter 21% and patented drugs capturing 9% market share.

Glenmark Pharma share price opened the day flat.