L&T surges after Jan-March earnings beat estimates

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Shares of Larsen & Toubro surged as much as 6.8 percent in early morning trading after the company's fourth-quarter profit beat analyst forecasts with a rise of 69 percent, helped by a steep gain in revenue from its infrastructure and heavy engineering businesses, and gain from a divestment. Net profit from continuing operations was 27.23 billion rupees ($461 million) in January-March, up from 16.1 billion rupees a year earlier, L&T said in a statement on Friday. That compared with the 16.15 billion rupees mean of 15 analysts, according to Thomson Reuters data. L&T shares were up nearly 5 percent at 1622 rupees as of 9:21 a.m. (Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)