Consolidated profit from ordinary activities before exceptional items and tax fell to 20.48 billion rupees ($250.43 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared with 29.20 billion rupees a year earlier, the Hyderabad, Telangana-based company said in an exchange filing.

The company earned 12.37 billion rupees as one-time profit from exceptional items, bringing profit before tax to 32.86 billion rupees.

Revenue from operations fell 13.8% to 58.51 billion rupees year-on-year, with revenue from the iron ore segment falling 13.2%.

WHY IT MATTERS

Prices of iron ore, key raw material in steel production, remained elevated during the quarter. NMDC raised its prices twice between January and March, currently standing at 4,500 rupees per ton for lump ore.

This made a dent in the Q4 profit of steel companies such as Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.

NMDC's total iron ore production in the quarter rose 3% year-on-year to 14.28 million tonnes, while sales remained flat, growing 0.32% to 12.46 million tonnes.

PEERS COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 months) Estimates (next 12 months) Analysts' sentiment

RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit growth Mean rating* # of Stock to Div yield

growth analyst price (%)

s target**

NMDC Ltd 5.72 3.46 10.06 10.54 Buy 7 0.75 3.57

Tata Steel Ltd 9.54 5.80 -3.92 33.43 Buy 27 0.82 3.43

Steel Authority of 8.33 5.29 0.84 122.47 Hold 11 0.89 5.48

India Ltd

JSW Steel Ltd 12.04 7.02 4.13 160.14 Hold 29 1.01 2.46

** The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

JAN-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE

($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)