Sterlite Industries: Volume growth drives performance

Sterlite Industries reported strong set of numbers for the quarter ended March 2013 today. During the recently concluded quarter, the company's revenue grew at 17.14 per cent to Rs 12673.76 crore led by strong growth in copper segment, which clocked 17 per cent year on year growth in revenue.

In the January - March 2013 quarter, Setrlite reported copper cathode production of 86,000 tonne, as against the expectations of 82,000 and 80,000 tonne in corresponding quarter last year. Indian Zinc and lead business, which comes under Hindustan Zinc, accounting for about 30 per cent of total revenue also aided in strong operating performance. Zinc reported 21 per cent growth followed by 49 per cent growth in silver. Silver reported 33 per cent growth in volumes to 117 tonnes in Q4FY13.

Higher volumes also helped in operating margins, which saw strong 109 basis point jump to 26.09 per cent in Q4FY13. In December quarter operating margins were at 21.7 per cent. This, coupled with improvement in margins helped company to post strong 40 per cent year-on-year growth in net profit to Rs 1924.63 crore. Looking at the results which shows strong growth across the segments along with improvement in the margins, there is scope for the stock reacting positively.