Sun Pharma Q4 net up 23 percent, beats estimate

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Sun Pharmaceutical Industries reported a 23.4 percent rise in quarterly net profit beating market estimates, and India's top drugmaker by market value also announced a bonus share issue.

The Mumbai-based company said consolidated net profit rose to 10.12 billion rupees for the fourth quarter ended March 31, compared with 8.2 billion rupees a year earlier. Sales rose 31.8 percent to 30.71 billion rupees.

Analysts, on an average, had expected the company to post net profit of 9.07 billion rupees on net sales of 29.85 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company also announced a one-for-one issue of bonus shares.

Shares of Sun Pharma, which has a market value of about $18.81 billion, fell 1.72 percent to 996.25 rupees on Tuesday, while the broader market gained 0.65 percent on the day. The stock has risen nearly 38 percent this year outperforming the benchmark index which has gained about 4 percent.

(Reporting by Kaustubh Kulkarni; Editing by Anand Basu)