India's leading pharma company fell sharply in early deals today

Cipla Ltd., India's leading pharma company, fell sharply in early deals on Monday despite announcing a strong set of numbers that were negated by the market reeling under short selling on major indices.

Cipla said its first quarter net profit surged 120 percent to 651 crore rupees compared with 295 crore rupees in the same quarter a year ago. Sales during April-June jumped 43 percent to 3,777 crore rupees versus 2,647 crore rupees in the same period last year.

The strong performance was ignored by traders who preferred to press the Sell button on the stock.

As a result, Cipla fell 29.60 rupees, or 4 percent, to 710 rupees on the National Stock Exchange where 28.7 lakh shares were traded in the first 40 minutes of trade compared with 20 lakhs as the five-day average.

Cipla's market capitalisation has soared 58 percent in the past one year to 59,460 crore rupees as investors bought into the growing exports story and the relative safety of sales and profit of pharma companies.

(Image credits: Indiatimes)