Diagnostic players rally up to 6% amid China covid surge

Shares of diagnostic firms rallied up to 6% in Wednesday’s intraday amid rising Covid cases in China.

Shares of Dr Lal PathLabs surged 6.4% to Rs 2,434.7, while shares of Metropolis Healthcare, Laurus Labs and Vijaya Diagnostic Centre rose over 3%. Ipca Labs also surged over 2%.



“The near-term market construct is not favourable for equities. The rising Covid cases in the US, Korea, Brazil, and China is an area of concern. The situation is dire in China. This might impact market sentiments,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said.

Shares of hospital chains Apollo Hospitals and Fortis Healthcare also rose nearly 3%.

With a fresh Covid-19 spurt, the government has also called a meeting of top health officials today. The health ministry has also written to all states to increase genome sequencing to track coronavirus variants for timely identification of any possible cluster.

Directions have been issued to states and Union territories to send samples of all Covid-positive cases to Insacog labs - a consortium of 52 laboratories across the country - to track new possible variants.

This will enable timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country and help in taking public health measures, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said in the letter written to the states/UTs on Tuesday.