L&T records biggest single-day fall in last six months

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) today recorded its largest single-day fall in last six months, after the company reported 50% drop in net profit. The company posted Rs 758.82 crore net profit for Q3FY10 against Rs 1,520.44 crore in Q3FY09.

The stock, apparently also, was the largest loser among the Sensex 30 & S&P CNX Nifty 50 stocks. The stock declined by 6.9 per cent to close at Rs 1,524.35 on BSE. Meanwhile, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex declined by 2.42 per cent to close at 17,051.14 today.  Earlier, on July 6 2009, the stock fell 8.9 per cent after the Sensex fell by almost 6 per cent.

The sharp drop in net profit was mainly due to fall in extra ordinary income, which plummeted by more than 90 per cent during the quarter. Extra ordinary income for the quarter ended December 2009 stood at Rs 62.55 crore (which includes proceeds from partial stake sale in Satyam Computer Services). However, the extra ordinary income for corresponding quarter of 2008 stood tall at Rs 916.33 crore (which included a gain on sale of the company's ready mix concrete business).

Hence, excluding extra ordinary income from the net profit results into a 15% jump at Rs 696.27 crore for Q3FY10 versus Rs 604.11 crore in Q3FY09. The net sales have declined 6% to Rs 8,071 crore against Rs 8,594 crore on a year-on-year basis.