Wockhardt remains stubbornly on the top of the gainers list on the BSE, currently up over 5% at Rs.400.80, with an intra day high at Rs.410.70. Volumes are up almost 1.5 times.

The stock, which has been battered down persistently for the past few days, has bounced back into the green today after it announced that its Swiss arm, Wockhardt Bio AG, had offered 5% of its stake in an IPO, in Switzerland, for a price of CHF 5.05/ordinary share. The market is enthused that these shares are scheduled to get listed on the Berne Stock Exchange in Switzerland today, 19^th Dec.

This may be just a knee jerk reaction to some good news after a spate of only bad news. Even yesterday, the US FDA issued an ‘import alert’ to its Chikalthana and Waluj units in Maharashtra. This was ‘detention without physical examination of veterinary drugs from firms that failed its test of good manufacturing practices (GMPs).’

This does come as a surprise because Wockhardt had sold off its animal health care division in 2009  to a French company for Rs.170 crore. So what this means is that maybe Wockhardt might have continued to make the vet drugs for the French company on a contract basis and that could have come under the US FDA scanner.