NALCO Q4 Results: PSU stock falls over 7% after earnings miss; Margins narrow

Shares of National Aluminium Co. (NALCO) fell over 6.5% on Thursday, April 30, in response to their results for the March quarter.NALCO reported a 16.7% drop in its net profit for the March quarter to ₹1,722.4 crore from ₹2,067 crore last year. The figure was lower than the CNBC-TV18 poll of ₹1,850 crore. The fall in profitability is also cushioned by a 56% jump in the company’s other income to ₹196 crore.

Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) for the quarter also declined by 17% on a year-on-year basis to ₹2,345 crore from ₹2,830 crore earlier. The CNBC-TV18 poll was working with a figure of ₹2,570 crore.
EBITDA margins for the quarter narrowed by nearly 700 basis points to 46.8% from 53.7% last year. The CNBC-TV18 poll figure stood at 51.4%.The company’s Alumina business EBITDA stood at ₹394.75 crore, which is lower than the estimates from Kotak Institutional Equities, who had pegged that figure to be ₹470 crore. Aluminium EBITDA stood at ₹1,895 crore, also lower than the Kotak projection of ₹1,970 crore.

Shares of NALCO are trading 6.7% lower on Thursday after the earnings announcement, at ₹404.05. The stock is still up 30% so far this year.