L&T extends fall on disappointing Q4 earnings

Larsen and Toubro (L&T) is trading lower by 3% at Rs 1,470, extending its previous day’s around 6% fall, on reporting worse-than-expected 6.9% year-on-year decline in net profit at Rs 1,788 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 (Q4) due to higher interest costs. India's biggest engineering and construction firm had profit of Rs 1,920 crore in a year ago quarter.

Net sales however, rose 10% to Rs 20,294 crore against Rs 18,461 crore a year ago, L&T said in a statement.

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Analysts on an average had expected profit of Rs 1,845 crore and net sale of Rs 20,874 crore from the quarter.

Meanwhile, the company has removed Rs 17,000 crore worth of projects from the order book; it also categorised works worth Rs 5,000-6,000 crore as “slow moving’’.

However, the company expects a 20% increase in order intake and 15-16% rise in revenue for 2013-14 (FY14) backed by the company’s increasing international reach. In FY13, L&T got orders worth Rs 88,000 crore.

“Order intake in FY14 would be a function of upcoming opportunities in power, DFC and overseas. However, there could be potential of some disruption as it being a election-year,” says Sanjeev Zarbade, Vice President- Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.

The stock opened at Rs 1,500 and hit a low of Rs 1,465 on NSE. A combined 1.2 million shares have changed hands on the counter till 1007 hours on NSE and BSE.