** Shares of Lovisa Holdings LOV.AX fall as much as 7.9% to A$27, their lowest levels since January 16

** Lovisa stock among top losers in the ASX 200 benchmark index .AXJO

** Lovisa reported HY NPAT of A$56.9 mln ($36.29 mln), up 6.5% pcp but below market estimates with Visible Alpha consensus of A$62 mln

** NPAT miss due to higher effective tax rate from last year, brokerage UBS says

** However, Citi analysts see a better second half with Visible Alpha estimates of +60 new stores in 2H being reasonably achievable

** Lovisa stock down 8% so far this year

($1 = 1.5681 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru)

((Sneha.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com;))