Novartis India, one of the leading pharma companies, witnessed a sharp fall in share price on Friday. It announced a drop in standalone net profit for the quarter ended September 2014. During the quarter, the profit of the company declined 69.18% to Rs 140.40 million from Rs 455.50 million in the same quarter previous year.

Net sales for the quarter rose 9.76% to Rs 2,347.90 million, compared with Rs 2,139 million for the prior year period

Shares of the company are trading at Rs 698.00, down Rs 16.35, or 2.29% at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday at 2:02 p.m. The scrip has touched an intra-day high of Rs 718.00 and low of Rs 677.65. The total volume of shares traded at the BSE is 40,792.