Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s market capitalisation crossed Rs 3 lakh crore and shares hit an all-time high during trade on Monday.
The stock rose as much as 2.60% during the day to Rs 1,267.90 apiece on the NSE. It pared gains to close 1.38% higher at Rs 1,252.75 per share, as compared with a 0.18% decline in the benchmark Nifty 50.
The pharma company's value at end of trade was approximately Rs 3.01 lakh crore. Its market cap had crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark on July 1, 2013. The stock took about 413 sessions to scale past the Rs 2 lakh crore mark on March 4, 2015.
Sun Pharma's stock has surged 25.1% on a year-to-date basis, as compared with a 18.3% advance in the Nifty.
The stock rise can be attributed to multiple factors.
On Dec. 12, the company revised its offer price to acquire all the outstanding shares of its Israel-based arm, Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. A day later, it announced that its specialty product, Ilumetri, had been included in Category B of China's national reimbursement drug list.
Thirty-seven out of the 40 analysts tracking Sun Pharma have a 'buy' rating on the stock, two recommend 'hold', and one recommends 'sell', according to Bloomberg data. The average of 12-month analyst price targets implies a potential upside of 1.7%.
The Nifty Pharma index rose for the fourth consecutive session on Monday. The advance in pharma stocks were led by a 5.39% rise in Zydus Lifesciences Ltd, followed by Granules India Ltd. and Laurus Labs Ltd., which rose 3.51% and 3.45%, respectively.