(Reuters) – India’s Hindustan Zinc reported a bigger-than-expected rise in second-quarter profit on Friday, helped by gains in zinc prices on prospects of stronger China demand and global supply worries, sending its shares 1.7% higher.
Consolidated net profit rose about 35% from a year earlier to 23.27 billion rupees (around $277 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, the miner said in a filing to the stock exchange.
Analysts on an average had expected a profit of 22.51 billion rupees, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
Shares of the company, which is majority owned by metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta, were down 1% before the results came.
Domestic zinc prices increased year-on-year in the September quarter as top producer and consumer China unveiled a barrage of stimulus measures to help its economy, boosting the outlook for metals demand.
Providing further support to zinc prices was a supply crunch from China as its top smelters agreed for planned production maintenance and postponed commissioning of new capacity.
Hindustan Zinc, which currently enjoys a near 75% share of the domestic market, said its revenue from operations grew 21% to 80.04 billion rupees, beating expectations for 79.99 billion rupees.
Its second-biggest business segment, silver, clocked a 20% growth in revenue. Hindustan Zinc is the world’s third-biggest producer of the metal.
Parent Vedanta is set to report its quarterly earnings later in the month.
($1 = 84.0420 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
