Hindalco fourth-quarter profit misses estimates

REUTERS - Aluminium and copper producer Hindalco Industries Ltd on Thursday posted a drop in quarterly profit that missed estimates, hurt by lower margins.

Net income for the quarter ended March 31, Hindalco's fiscal fourth, was 1.6 billion rupees ($25.1 million) compared with 2.48 billion rupees a year earlier, the flagship company of the Aditya Birla conglomerate said in a statement.

Net sales came in at 92.19 billion rupees, compared with 83.6 billion rupees a year ago.

Analysts, on average, had expected the company to post a net profit of 2.93 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

($1 = 63.8000 rupees)

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Mumbai; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)