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India's Jindal SAW reported a rise in second-quarter profit on Friday, as demand in its key Middle East and North Africa (MENA) markets remained steady while expenses came in nearly flat.

The company, which makes steel pipes for the energy, transportation and water sectors, said its consolidated profit after tax grew 32.5% to 5 billion rupees ($59.5 million) in the three months ended Sept 30.

KEY CONTEXT

Jindal SAW's quarterly raw materials expenses dropped 14.4% from a year ago.

The falling prices of iron ore and coking coal, key raw materials for steel firms, were expected to partially offset the weak steel prices, analysts had said.

Steel prices in India plunged to a more than three-year low in August, as the world's second-biggest crude steel producer remained a net importer of the metal.

India's stainless steel maker Jindal Stainless posted a decline in second-quarter profit on lower steel prices on Thursday. Industry majors JSW Steel and Jindal Steel are yet to report their September-quarter results.

PEER COMPARISON

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

months)

RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue growth (%) Profit growth Mean rating* No. of Stock to price target** Div yield (%)

(%) analysts

Jindal SAW JIND.NS 12.30 7.90 4.32 7.94 Strong Buy 2 0.99 0.55

APL Apollo Tubes APLA.NS 39.81 25.75 22.01 34.96 Buy 13 0.96 0.35

Ratnamani Metals RMT.NS 32.36 23.52 14.99 20.83 Buy 3 0.93 0.38

and Tubes

JSW Steel JSTL.NS 16.96 8.94 11.99 43.68 Hold 30 1.02 0.74

* 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

JULY-SEPTEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG IBES

-- $1 = 84.0430 Indian rupees