Indian miner Vedanta tops Q2 profit view on higher metals prices
Nov 8 (Reuters) -Indian miner Vedanta Ltd VDAN.NS posted a bigger-than-expected second-quarter profit on Friday buoyed by higher metals prices even as demand was sluggish.
The conglomerate, led by billionaire Anil Agarwal, reported consolidated net profit of 43.52 billion rupees (about $516 million) for the September quarter, which surpassed analysts' average estimate of 23.67 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.
Vedanta had posted a loss of 17.83 billion rupees in the year-ago period, as it paid a total of 84.56 billion rupees in tax, including a one-time charge for minimum alternate tax.
In the reporting quarter, Vedanta benefitted from higher prices of aluminium, zinc and copper, its biggest businesses.
Domestic aluminium prices surged 10.7% in the July-September quarter, while copper prices and zinc prices rose 11.7% and 14.4%, as per Systematix Institutional Research.
The benchmark aluminium CMAL3, copper CMCU3 and zinc CMZN3 prices on the London Metal Exchange strengthened on a weaker U.S. dollar and expectations of economic recovery in major consumer China following a barrage of stimulus measures.
Higher commodity prices tend to raise selling prices and margins for mining companies.
Vedanta Aluminium, which is the country's largest producer of the metal, reported a 15% rise in pre-tax profit to 137.34 billion rupees. The company's copper and zinc businesses reported 38% and 21% pre-tax profit growth, respectively.
Revenue from operations dipped 3.6% to 371.71 billion rupees amid subdued domestic demand as above-average rainfall slowed activity in the construction and automobile sectors.
Expenses increased 1.6% to 331.69 billion rupees.
Vedanta's unit, Hindustan Zinc HZNC.NS reported a profit beat on higher zinc prices, last month.
Separately, Vedanta said it will invest 118.16 billion rupees ($1.40 billion) to ramp up smelter and wire rod capacity and will fund the investments via internal accruals and debt.
It also approved capex worth 52.09 billion rupees for the acquisition and expansion of Athena Chhattisgarh Power Plant Project.
($1 = 84.3510 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
