(Reuters) -India’s Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone missed third-quarter profit estimates on Thursday, as growth in cargo volumes slackened amid a slowdown in the world’s fifth-largest economy, sending its shares 6% lower in the afternoon trade.
Consolidated net profit for the country’s top private port operator jumped 14% to 25.20 billion rupees ($291.1 million) for the October-December period, but fell short of analysts’ average estimate of 26.08 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.
Adani Ports’ stock was among the top losers on the benchmark Nifty 50 index.
Adani Ports kept intact its fiscal 2025 cargo volumes forecast in the range of 460 million metric tons to 480 million tons, after logging a 4% volume growth to 113 million tons in the reported quarter.
India’s slowing economic growth has curbed cargo volumes at port operators including Adani Ports and smaller rival JSW Infrastructure, analysts at ElaraCapital said in a note earlier this month.
Adani Ports also said it now expects fiscal 2025 core profit to be in a range of 188 billion rupees to 189 billion rupees, up from its earlier forecast of 170 billion rupees to 180 billion rupees.
($1 = 86.5620 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
