Hindustan Zinc, a part of the dynamic Vedanta Resources group, has declared the results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2009.
For the period under review, India's leading zinc producer said that it has posted a decline of 53.35% in its net profit, which stood at Rs 551.47 crore as against Rs 1,182.20 crore during the corresponding period of the last year (March 2008).
The company’s total income during the fourth quarter witnessed a fall of 39.39% to Rs 1,483.15 crore from Rs 2,446.97 crore in the fourth quarter of FY 2008.
In its endeavor to protect domestic industry from a gush of cheap imports from China, Thailand, Japan, and the US, the Indian government has provisionally imposed 'anti-dumping' duty on some of the high-end stainless steel products. To be effective for a six-month period, up to October 21, 2009, the anti-dumping duty would be payable in Indian rupees. 
Country's jewellery export witnessed modest growth of 0.45% to $21.11 billion in FY09 despite low demand from traditional markets of US and European countries. The sector performed well in first half of the fiscal. However, exports dipped by 18.9% during the second half under the impact of global slowdown and higher gold prices.
Crude settled up 30 cents at $48.85 on Wednesday, as early gains on U. S.
Base metals witnessed range bound trading session and ended the day with negative bias, Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell $150 to $4,390 per tone and metals like Zinc and Nickel also went down sharply.
Gold nudged up on Thursday, adding to gains from the previous session on concern about the global economy and the financial sector, as well as physical buying in India, the world's largest consumer. But the market lacked momentum to push towards the key $900 mark, weighed down by stalling investment in the world's largest goldbacked exchange-traded fund.