National Aluminium Second-Quarter Net Falls on Prices

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- National Aluminium Co., India’s second-biggest producer, reported a 64 percent drop in second- quarter profit because of declining prices. Net income fell to 1.59 billion rupees ($34 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30 from 4.44 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said today in a statement. Sales dropped 26 percent to 11.4 billion rupees. Aluminum in the period averaged 38 percent lower on the London Metal Exchange from a year earlier, while alumina averaged $269.61 a ton, compared with $407.50 a year earlier, according to Metal Bulletin data. National Aluminium, which produced 360,000 tons of aluminum and 1.6 million tons of alumina in the last financial year, sells the metal at prices linked to the London Metal Exchange. National Aluminium shares rose as much as 3.3 percent to 362.45 rupees and traded at 358 rupees, up 2.1 percent, as of 3:15 p.m. in Mumbai. The shares have risen 88 percent this year, compared with a 65 percent gain in the Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensitive Index. To contact the reporter on this story: Debarati Roy in Mumbai at droy5@bloomberg.net.