Ranbaxy Q2 net loss at $85.3 million

REUTERS - Ranbaxy Laboratories , India's top drugmaker by sales, reported a net loss of 5.24 billion rupees for the June quarter on foreign exchange transactions and loss of goodwill booked at its overseas subsidiaries.

Ranbaxy, controlled by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Co , had reported a net loss of 5.86 billion rupees for the same period last year.

Sales fell 17.84 percent to 26.33 billion rupees during fiscal second quarter ended June, the drugmaker said on Wednesday.

The company recorded foreign exchange losses of 3.67 billion rupees while it booked a loss of goodwill worth 1.19 billion rupees at its overseas subsidiaries, it said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Analysts, on an average, had estimated net profit of 335.56 million rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares in Ranbaxy ended up 4.32 percent at 281.50 rupees on Wednesday when the BSE Sensex fell 0.36 percent.

(Reporting by Kaustubh Kulkarni in MUMBAI; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)