Advertisement

ITC shares fall after lower-than-expected earnings

A man talks on his mobile phone as he walks past an ITC office building in Kolkata September 4, 2012. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri/Files

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)