Bloomberg Jan 25--Sterlite Industries India Ltd., the nation’s largest producer of base metals, reported a 60 percent gain in third-quarter profit, aided by higher prices.
Net income climbed to 11.01 billion rupees （$241 million） in the three months ended Dec. 31 from 6.87 billion rupees a year earlier, the unit of Vedanta Resources Plc said today in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The average profit estimate of 16 analysts complied by Bloomberg was 11.8 billion rupees. Sales rose 24 percent to 82.90 billion rupees.
The average price of copper rose 29 percent in the last quarter to $8,605 a metric ton in London, while aluminum prices gained 16 percent to $2,365 a ton. The prices of zinc and lead averaged 4 percent higher at $2,331 and $2,404 respectively, while silver, the precious metal also produced by unit Hindustan Zinc Ltd., rose more than 50 percent to $26.5 an ounce in the spot market last quarter.
Sterlite’s raw material costs rose to 45.4 billion rupees in the quarter from 34 billion rupees, according to the statement. Coal, the main fuel used to generate electricity to produce metals, rose 37 percent to an average $107 a metric ton from a year earlier, according to researcher McCloskey Group Ltd.
Sterlite Industries shares rose as much as 3 percent to 183.50 rupees and traded at 179.55 rupees as of 3:10 p.m. in Mumbai. The stock has fallen 3.9 percent this year, compared with a 7.5 percent decline in India’s key Sensitive Index.
India’s top court said yesterday it will hear on Feb. 25 Sterlite’s appeal against a lower court order asking it to shut its only copper smelter at Tuticorin in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The company will be allowed to operate the plant in the meantime, the court said.
Hindustan Zinc Ltd., majority owned by Sterlite, last week reported a better-than-expected 12 percent gain in quarterly profit on higher prices.
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