Shares of commodity exchange MCX today fell nearly 6 per cent after it reported a 45 per cent fall in standalone net profit during the fourth quarter of 2015-16 fiscal.

The stock declined by 5.39 per cent to Rs 867 on the BSE. On the NSE, it tumbled 5.65 per cent to Rs 865.10.

At the closing trade, the stock was down 3.25 per cent at Rs 886.60 on the BSE. On the NSE, the stock closed lower by 3.32 per cent at Rs 886.50.

MCX had yesterday reported a 45 per cent fall in standalone net profit to Rs 27.10 crore during the fourth quarter of the 2015-16 fiscal due to higher expenses.

The exchange had posted a net profit of Rs 49.30 crore in the same quarter of the 2014-15 fiscal.

Profit took a beating as expenses rose to Rs 47.35 crore during the quarter from Rs 31.93 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal, the exchange had said in a BSE filing.

However, total income from the operations rose marginally to Rs 60.50 crore in January-March from Rs 58.97 crore in the year-ago period.

For the full fiscal, the company’s consolidated net profit declined sharply to Rs 42.47 crore from Rs 125.76 crore in the previous year.

Bharti Airtel rings loud

Shares of Bharti Airtel ended higher by 0.96 per cent at Rs 358.60 after gaining as much as 2.8 per cent to Rs 364 on telecom tower sale deal.

Bharti Airtel’s arm Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV has signed a pact with Helios Towers Africa to sell 950 towers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The stock was among the top gainers on S&P BSE Telecom index.

IDFC Securities has estimated that total proceeds from the deal could reach $110 million-$130 million.

It says sale of tower assets would help Bharti deleverage through debt reduction and reduce planned capex on towers.

The brokerage has maintained “outperform” rating with a price target of Rs 410.

ITC stock recovers

ITC stock ended the session down by 0.11 per cent at Rs 317.20.

Earlier, the stock hit 2-month low as the company had shut cigarette plants from May 4 to comply with new stipulated pictorial warnings rule issued by the government.

The stock fell as much as 3.7 per cent to its lowest since March 1.

In a notice to the stock market on Thursday, the company said the decision was taken following a Supreme Court directive on issues pertaining to 85 per cent pictorial warning on tobacco product packets.

On May 4, the apex court refused the tobacco products manufacturers’ plea to stay the implementation of the new cigarette packaging rules effective from April 1.

It also transferred all the petitions against the packaging rules to the Karnataka High Court.

US-based Philip Morris International’s India partner Godfrey Phillips fell as much as 4.9 per cent to its lowest since Oct. 16, 2015.

The rules were initially supposed to come into force on April 1, 2015 but were delayed.

ITC stock was down 5 per cent YTD, and down 11 per cent from its October 2015 peak.

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