This Pharma stock is the best defensive bet in a volatile market!

Slug - In this undercurrent and high volatility scenario, the pharma sector is one of the go-to sectors for traders.

The past few weeks have been hugely volatile for the Indian benchmark indices. The corporate results season is on a roll and a lot of stocks have been corrected from their recent highs. The continuous FII selling is creating a panic among the market participants. In this undercurrent and high volatility scenario, the pharma sector is one of the go-to sectors for traders.

So, before we move forward towards this trending Pharma stock, let's take a look at the Nifty Pharma sector technical structure.

Nifty Pharma: The Overview

Nifty Pharma made a high of 14938 on October 4 and thereafter, it had witnessed a dip of nearly 9 per cent from the highs. it halted its down move around the important moving average i.e, 200-DMA, which is the most widely followed moving average by the long-term investors. Currently, the stock is trading in the range of 13600-14200. This sector was one of the top-performing sectors during the unprecedented Covid pandemic time and acted as the torchbearer for the Indian market.

Trending stock in the Pharma Sector.

Cipla: It is one of the leading companies in the Indian pharmaceutical sector with a market cap of Rs 74000 crore. The company offers its products for the therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular, children's health, dermatology, diabetes and critical care, etc. The stock has corrected about 12 per cent its recent high of Rs 1005. Its current PE stands at 28.47 while the sector PE stands at 38.6 indicating that the stock is not trading at a high premium. Earnings per share (EPS) is increasing consistently YoY.

The stock is currently trading near above its 200-DMA and interestingly, it has reclaimed its 20-DMA. Furthermore, despite the fact that the stock has witnessed a correction of over 10 per cent, the 14-period RSI has never entered into oversold territory and currently, it is above the 45-mark. The Bollinger bands have squeezed, which usually represents low volatility regime and we anticipate that a period of low volatility would be followed by high volatility.

Considering that the risk-reward is quite favourable at current levels, traders can keep this stock on their watchlist. It is one of the attractive bets of the Indian pharmaceutical industry.