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L&T, the infrastructure major, declined by 1% on opening on Friday morning ahead of its results. Analysts said that the September-quarter earnings numbers may disappoint due to pricing pressures.
The stock fell 1.1% to Rs 828 post the opening but recovered from the decline immediately. The share is currently up 0.5% to Rs 841.50. The stock on Thursday had closed at Rs 837.25 per share, down 3.7% from its previous close.
On Thursday, Credit Suisse downgraded the outlook for the stock from neutral to underperform. “Led by an increasing share of orders from low-margin Middle East and real estate segments, its margin pressure should continue. We expect L&T to cut its guidance of flat margins for the 2014 fiscal,” said analysts Amish Shah and Abhishek Bansal in the Credit Suisse client note dated October 15, 2013.
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Sector analysts said that the stock had run up a bit in anticipation of its Q2 earnings numbers. Since September, the stock price of L&T has run up by over 15%. Some analysts said that there could be some profit booking in the stock post the result numbers.
The BSE Sensex on Friday went up 0.7% to trade at 20,563 while the NSE Nifty was trading up 0.6% to 6,082.
