Hospital stocks continued on a three-day rally as the GOP health-care bill got killed Friday before reaching a vote from the House, something Capitol Street's Ipsita Smolinski told CNBC was likely to happen in the equities market.
"This also means that managed care stocks could see a dip because there [was] a health-care industry fee that would have been repealed," in the Obamacare replacement bill, she said in an interview on CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Friday afternoon.
That so-called dip could impact companies including Aetna or UnitedHealth Group.
But as the Trump administration now pivots to tax reform — which Speaker Paul Ryan has said they will do — more industry taxes could get reformed and should see relief, she said.
Thirdly, the pharmaceutical industry shouldn't let its guard down, Smolinski warned. Should President Donald Trump be thinking he wants to make some changes on health care sooner rather than later, that could entail some "angry tweeting" against drug companies — which he's been apt to do in the past.
This could hurt drug makers such as Mylan NV or Pfizer.
"I take from this that governing is hard," Paul Howard, a former Mitt Romney health care advisor, told CNBC on Friday. Many people hoped [the health-care bill] would set the table for tax reform, and drug makers wanted to see this done, he added.
Now that the Trump administration wasn't able to pull through, this brings into question: "Can Republicans govern?" Howard asked.
Shares of hospital stocks Tenet, HCA and LifePoint all rose at least 3 percent on Friday, as Wall Street waited for the health-care bill vote. Hospital stock Community Health Systems climbed near 10 percent during intraday trading.
After the House decided to pull the health-care bill — at least for now — U.S. equities closed mixed after a jumpy trading session throughout the day.
The Dow Jones industrial average, which had traded more than 100 points lower earlier in the session, closed about 60 points lower. The S&P 500 closed about 0.1 percent lower, with materials lagging. The health-care sector turned positive following the news.
— CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.