(Reuters) – India’s National Aluminium Company (NALCO) reported third-quarter profit above analysts’ estimates on Monday, buoyed by strong commodity prices.
The state-owned company’s consolidated profit jumped over three-fold to 15.66 billion rupees ($179 million) in the October-December quarter, beating the estimate of 13.92 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG.
Global aluminium prices averaged at around $2,600 in the quarter, up 17% on-year, data from at least four brokerages showed. This was in line with benchmark prices on the London Metal Exchange.
Higher commodity prices tend to raise the selling price of metals, leading to improved profit margins.
The price hike also helped rival Vedanta beat core profit estimates for the third quarter.
NALCO did not disclose its quarterly EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization); however, according to Rajesh Majumdar, an analyst at B&K Securities India, the company reported an EBITDA of 23.3 billion rupees on “significantly higher alumina realisations” in the quarter.
Analysts, on average, had expected an EBITDA of 19.96 billion rupees.
Bigger rival Hindalco is set to report third-quarter results later this week.
($1 = 87.4750 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Manvi Pant and Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
