Hindustan Zinc Ltd, the country’s largest producer of the metal, reported a 20 per cent decline in fourth-quarter profit, as lead and zinc prices fell.
Net income fell to Rs 1,410 crore ($270 million), or Rs 3.34 a share, in the three months to March 31, from Rs 1,770 crore, or Rs 4.19, a year earlier, the unit of London-based Vedanta Resources Plc said on Friday in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Zinc, required to rust-proof steel, averaged 16 per cent lower at $2,039 a tonne while lead fell 18 per cent to $2,116 a tonne in the quarter in London.
The average spot price of silver, the precious metal the company also produces, rose two per cent to $32.6 an ounce.
Shares in Udaipur, Rajasthan-based Hindustan Zinc gained 0.8 per cent to close at Rs 126.10 in Mumbai on Friday.
The earnings were announced after the close of markets. The benchmark Sensitive Index rose 0.6 per cent.
Total expenses increased 17 percent to 16.4 billion rupees in the period on higher royalty and fuel prices. Raw material costs more than doubled to 832.1 million rupees from 327.7 million rupees a year earlier.
The company's zinc output dropped 2 percent to 190,000 metric tons in the last quarter from a year earlier, while production of lead more than doubled to 37,000 tons, it said in an exchange filing on April 10. Silver output gained 77 percent to 88,000 tons.
Billionaire Anil Agarwal, who owns the Vedanta group, offered 170 billion rupees ($3.3 billion) to buy the Indian government¿s remaining stakes in Hindustan Zinc and Bharat Aluminium Co., a ministry official said March 22. Buying the stakes will give Vedanta¿s Mumbai-based unit Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd. control over a combined 964,000 tons of zinc and lead-producing capacity and a 2 million-ton bauxite mine.
