Monday, November 29, 1999

L&T Q4 net beats forecast, shares rally

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Engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro beat forecast with a 44 percent jump in quarterly profit and said its large order book would boost growth in the medium term, sending its shares up in a weak market.At the end of March quarter the company's order book stood at more than 1 trillion rupees ($21.9 billion), the leading construction company said in a statement.L&T, which operates in industries as diverse as engineering, shipbuilding and software, has gained in the past few years from a building boom as India revamps airports, roads and expands industrial capacity.Net profit rose to 14.38 billion rupees ($315 million) in its fiscal fourth quarter ended March from 9.99 billion rupees a year ago.L&T's shares, valued at $20.4 billion, rose as much as 2.9 percent after the results to 1,573.75 rupees, while the main index was down 1.4 percent.Net sales rose to 133.75 billion rupees from 104.7 billion.A Reuters poll of 11 brokerages had estimated net profit of 11.9 billion rupees on net sales of 129.9 billion.Sizeable orders in its engineering and construction segment bolstered sales, the company said. Operating profit margins for the division, which contributes about 80 percent of revenue, rose 60 basis points to 13.6 percent in the year to March.Its order inflow for this segment rose 41 percent during the year to 639 billion rupees, it said.(Writing by Janaki Krishnan; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)(For Quotes and Interactive Charts of L&T click http://in.reuters.com/money/quotes/chart?symbol=LART.BO)(For more business news on Reuters Money visit http://www.reutersmoney.in)
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