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Informist, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026

 

By Ashutosh Pati

 

MUMBAI – The nine metal and mining companies in the Nifty 200 reported their best year-on-year growth in adjusted bottom line in seven quarters for the June quarter, driven by a surge in prices of aluminium and higher realisations. Price hikes by steel majors and a rise in prices of zinc, silver, and copper during the quarter aided the overall performance of these companies.

 

Revenue growth outpaced the rise in cost of power and fuel and other expenses, further supporting the bottom-line growth while a sharp rise in raw material costs weighed. The aggregate revenue growth of these companies grew on year for the fourth straight quarter.

 

These nine companies, which include constituents of the Nifty 50 and Nifty 100 indices, reported a cumulative year-on-year growth of 80% in net profit, excluding exceptional items, for the June quarter. This was much higher than analysts' estimate of 41% growth. The aggregate bottom-line growth of these nine companies was significantly higher than the 17% aggregate net profit growth of Nifty 50 companies for the quarter. It also exceeded the growth of nearly 3% and 12% reported by Nifty 100 and Nifty 200 companies, respectively.

 

These nine companies reported 22% year-on-year revenue growth for the June quarter, in line with the consensus estimates. All of them reported growth in net sales for the quarter. While almost all of these companies reported growth in bottom line for the quarter, Hindalco Industries Ltd., JSW Steel Ltd., Hindustan Zinc Ltd., and Steel Authority of India Ltd. outperformed the rest, with their net profits more than doubling on year. Only Jindal Steel Ltd. posted a fall in its bottom line for the quarter. Barring Jindal Steel, the other eight companies' net profit growth was above the Street's expectations.

 

Only four companies surpassed revenue growth expectations for the quarter, while Vedanta Ltd. and National Aluminium Co. Ltd.'s top line growth was along projections. Hindalco, SAIL, and NMDC Ltd. missed the Street estimates on revenue. Hindustan Zinc was the star performer in terms of top-line growth, registering an increase of over 77% on year for the quarter. SAIL, NMDC, and JSW Steel were the underperformers, with, respectively, 1%, 2%, and 10% growth in revenues.

 

ALUMINIUM ASCENDS

The two aluminium companies--Hindalco and NALCO--together reported a 123% increase in adjusted net profit for the quarter, significantly higher than expectations of 52% growth. A surge in prices of industrial metals, particularly aluminium, drove the June quarter performance of these non-ferrous majors. The net sales of these two companies rose 32% on year but were lower than the 39% growth expected by analysts.

 

The price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange surged nearly 43% on year to an average of $3,520.2 per tonne in the June quarter, as the war in West Asia forced smelters in the region to curtail output after suffering damage to infrastructure. West Asia accounts for around 9% of global aluminium output.

 

Hindalco's rolled products and copper volumes fell during the quarter, weighing on its top line. However, brokerages remain positive on the company as volumes at its US subsidiary Novelis Inc.'s Oswego plant are recovering after back-to-back fire incidents last year. Both fires were limited to the hot mill area and the affected mill resumed operations in early June. Production activities are being ramped up to meet pent-up demand and normalise shipments, as per the company.

 

Besides aluminium, Hindalco has exposure to copper. Its India copper segment's revenue was up 16% on year for the quarter. This segment's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation rose 36% for the quarter.

 

STEADY STEEL

The adjusted net profit of the four steel companies in the Nifty 200--JSW Steel, Tata Steel Ltd., Jindal Steel, and SAIL--rose over 51% on year for the June quarter, more than twice the 25% growth expected by the Street. The cumulative net revenues of the four rose nearly 12% on year, higher than estimates of 7% growth.

 

Heavyweight JSW Steel and state-owned SAIL's adjusted bottom line for the June quarter more than doubled. Strong revenue growth, lower power and fuel costs, and higher other income helped JSW Steel's bottom line.  The company's power and fuel expenses for the quarter declined 0.2% and other expenses fell 7% on year. Its other income doubled on year.

 

The ferrous companies' performance was weighed down by Jindal Steel, which posted a fall of nearly 44% on year in bottom line for the June quarter. A substantial rise in the cost of raw materials weighed on the company's June quarter results.

 

OTHER THREE

The June quarter performance of Vedanta was driven by strong earnings of its listed subsidiary Hindustan Zinc, in which it holds 60.71% stake. Higher prices of silver and zinc boosted the zinc major's results for the quarter.

 

Vedanta's consolidated net profit rose 72% on year for the June quarter. Hindustan Zinc's net profit for the quarter more than doubled on year, led by higher sales of zinc and silver, along with higher prices. Silver prices were up 118% on year at an average of $73.54 per ounce in the June quarter and zinc prices rose 30% to an average of $3,476 per tonne.

 

NMDC, on the other hand, posted a modest adjusted bottom line growth of 2% for the quarter. Its top line was also up a mere 3%. A 30% increase in expenses on royalty and other levies weighed on the company's performance for the quarter.

 

SEQUENTIAL

The aggregate adjusted net profit for the June quarter of these nine companies grew just 4% sequentially, slowest in four quarters, as the rise in their cost of materials and power and fuel expenses doubled on quarter. Their aggregate net profit margin fell to 11.02% from 13.63% in the March quarter.

 

Only four of these companies posted sequential growth in adjusted net profit for the June quarter, with Hindalco registering a 38% rise and JSW Steel 34% growth. Jindal Steel's adjusted bottom line fell 55% sequentially while Tata Steel and Vedanta clocked a decline of 18%.

 

Shares of all the nine companies rose after their results. As of Thursday, however, shares of four have fallen since the announcement of their June-quarter results.

 

The following table shows the performance of the nine companies in the metals and mining sector vis-a-vis the consensus estimate for each company, as well as against the consensus estimate for the metals and mining sector and the Nifty 200 index.

 

	PAT beat analysts' estimate	Adjusted PAT growth %	PAT growth estimate %	Adjusted PAT beat sector estimate	Adjusted PAT beat Nifty 200 estimate		Revenue beat analysts' estimate	Revenue growth %	Revenue growth estimate %	Revenue beat sector estimate	Revenue beat Nifty 200 estimate
Metals & Mining		79.80	40.83					22.05	21.80
Nifty 200		11.73	(-)6.02					21.91	18.67
COMPANY
Hindalco Industries	YES	132.57	45.29	YES	YES		NO	32.06	38.51	YES	YES
JSW Steel	YES	112.96	47.05	YES	YES		YES	9.77	3.52	NO	NO
Tata Steel	YES	28.21	10.60	NO	YES		YES	14.32	10.57	NO	NO
Jindal Steel	NO	(-)43.45	(-)29.94	NO	NO		YES	25.93	13.09	YES	YES
Vedanta	YES	71.84	19.83	YES	YES		YES	53.64	53.39	YES	YES
Hindustan Zinc	YES	146.14	128.87	YES	YES		YES	77.22	64.64	YES	YES
National Aluminium Co.	YES	88.22	79.55	YES	YES		NO	39.28	39.71	YES	YES
NMDC	YES	1.97	(-)0.66	NO	YES		NO	2.43	19.13	NO	NO
Steel Authority of India	YES	159.67	120.24	YES	YES		NO	1.25	4.05	NO	NO

 

The following table shows the profit margins of the nine metals-and-mining sector companies that are part of the Nifty 200.

 

	PAT Margin for Jun-26	PAT Margin for Jun-25	PAT Margin for Mar-26
Nifty 200	11.07%	12.34%	14.78%
Metals & Mining Sector	11.02%	8.11%	13.63%
COMPANY	PAT Margin for Jun-26	PAT Margin for Jun-25	PAT Margin for Mar-26
Hindalco Industries	8.27%	6.23%	3.32%
JSW Steel	9.82%	5.06%	31.99%
Tata Steel	3.81%	3.91%	4.62%
Jindal Steel	5.46%	12.15%	6.44%
Vedanta	22.61%	20.22%	27.22%
Hindustan Zinc	39.64%	28.54%	37.05%
National Aluminium Co.	37.76%	27.95%	34.27%
NMDC	29.54%	29.67%	18.08%
Steel Authority of India	6.23%	2.64%	5.45%

 

End

 

US$1 = INR 95.70

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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