Coal India March-quarter Profit Falls 38%, Misses Estimates

State-run Coal India Ltd reported a lower-than-expected fourth-quarter consolidated profit, hurt by higher costs.

Consolidated profit fell 38 per cent to Rs 27.16 billion ($421.18 million) in the quarter ended March 31, from 43.98 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said on Monday.

Analysts on average had estimated a consolidated profit of Rs 38.20 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Coal production of the Kolkata-based company, which accounts for more than 80 per cent of the country's output, rose to Rs 176.37 million in the fourth quarter from 165.24 million tonnes a year earlier.

Consolidated total income climbed 8.3 percent to Rs 266.36 billion.

The world's largest coal miner recently cut its production target by about a 10th to 600 million tonnes for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

(Reuters)