(Reuters) – Indian miner Vedanta reported third-quarter core profit above market estimates on Friday, propelled by a strong showing in its aluminium and zinc businesses.
Shares of the company, which were only marginally higher ahead of the results, closed up 2.1%.
The metals-to-oil conglomerate reported core profit, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), of 112.84 billion rupees.
Analysts, on average, were expecting EBITDA of 104.53 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.
Its core profit margin expanded to 34% from 29% a year earlier, on account of EBITDA in aluminium and zinc businesses rising by 58% and 28% respectively.
Domestic aluminium prices surged about 17%, while zinc prices rose nearly 22%, according to two brokerages, in line with benchmark aluminium and zinc prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME).
Vedanta’s net profit rose 76% on-year to 35.47 billion rupees, in-line with analysts’ estimates of 35.27 billion rupees.
Its revenue from operations rose more than 10% to 385.26 billion rupees, outpacing expenses, which grew about 3% to 331.34 billion rupees.
Earlier this week, Vedanta’s subsidiary Hindustan Zinc topped quarterly estimates on higher zinc prices.
($1 = 86.6300 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Manvi Pant; Editing by Varun H K)
