ITC shares fall after lower-than-expected earnings

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Shares in ITC Ltd fell 2.8 percent on Monday after India's largest cigarette maker reported lower-than-expected earnings as higher taxes on smokes and a government push to discourage tobacco consumption hurt business.

ITC said late on Friday it earned 23.61 billion rupees ($371.6 million) in the January-March quarter, while analysts were expecting the company to earn 25.19 billion rupees, as per Thomson Reuters data.

The broader Nifty was down 0.25 percent.

(Reporting by Rafael Nam; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)