Sun Pharma rises 4% ahead of Q2 nos, Taro's earnings strong

Moneycontrol Bureau

Buying interest is seen in Sun Pharma as its arm Taro Pharmaceutical Industries September quarter beat street expectations. Shares of the pharma major jumped over 4 percent in intraday trade on Wednesday.

Taro's sales grew 28 percent year-on-year. Its operating profits grew faster at 46 percent led by 740 basis points margin expansion. Religare has hiked its target price to Rs 725.

Meanwhile, Sun Pharma will also declare its second quarter (July-September) earnings on Wednesday. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, the growth in the quarter will be driven mainly due to consolidation of URL and DUSA Pharma, and traction US business.

Analysts expect profit after tax to grow 48 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,340 crore in the quarter gone by. Its reported PAT for Q2FY13 was Rs 319.6 crore, but there was an exceptional outflow of Rs 583.5 crore on Protonix generic; hence reported PAT stood at Rs 903 crore for that quarter.