Coal India preferred pick in metals and mining space: Barclays

MUMBAI: Barclays Equity Research has maintained an ‘overweight’ rating on Coal India after the company announced results for quarter ended March 2012 post market hours yesterday. The company remains the preferred pick in the India metals and mining space, the brokerage said.

“Coal India’s results for 4Q FY12 were significantly ahead of our estimates and the consensus forecasts. The key highlight for the quarter was a sharp 7 percent QoQ increase in realisations even after adjusting for Rs 1,000 crore of incentives booked in 4Q FY12,” the report said.

The management’s recent guidance of 6.5 percent production growth for FY13 was significantly higher than its production estimate of 4.2 percent.

“Coal India remains our preferred pick in the Indian metals & mining space. We maintain our "overweight" rating based on our 12-month price target of Rs 411,” the note added.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 1,223.52 crore for the quarter ended March 2012 compared to Rs 1,385.79 crore in the same period a year ago. Total income increased to Rs 1,693.43 crore from Rs 1,474.33 crore in the year-ago period.