The sugar manufacturer's net profit from continuing operations rose to 1.25 billion Indian rupees ($15.28 million) in the quarter ended March 31 from 627.2 million rupees.

Revenue from operations rose nearly 35.8% to 11.49 billion rupees, as export volumes for sugar went up and ethanol prices spiked.

WHY IT MATTERS

India's sugar manufacturers have gained from a hike in prices during the quarter, which helped sugarmakers make cane payments to farmers on time, Reuters reported last month.

Sugar sales remained high as India is set to record one of its hottest summers, which is likely to boost consumption of sugar products such as cold drinks and ice cream.

Sugar production, however, slowed, hurt by lower output from the western state of Maharashtra, the country's top producer of the sweetener.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 Estimates Analysts

months) (next 12 '

months) sentimen

t

RIC PE EV/EBI Price/ Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div

TDA Sales growth growth rating* analyst price yield

s target** (%)

Dalmia Bharat Sugar DLMI. 7.43 NaN NULL NULL NULL Buy 0 0.75 1.09

and Industries Ltd NS

Balrampur Chini BACH. 13.18 10.09 3.52 20.30 74.10 Buy 5 0.84 0.65

Mills Ltd NS

Dwarikesh Sugar DWAR. 9.21 6.38 3.42 1.35 62.11 Strong 4 0.70 2.25

Industries Ltd NS Buy

Dhampur Sugar Mills DAMS. 8.93 6.58 3.60 -0.43 15.08 Buy 1 0.91 2.03

Ltd NS

($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Biplob Kumar Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)