Volume De-growth A Negative Surprise; Maintain HOLD Missing our estimates on all counts, National Aluminium Company (NALCO) has delivered a weak performance in 1QFY18, largely due to lower sales volume and higher input cost. EBITDA increased by 17% YoY (down 47% QoQ) to Rs2.3bn vs. our estimate of Rs3.46bn. While its employee cost surged by 24% YoY to Rs4.3bn owing to provisioning for wage hike, Power & Fuel cost rose by 23% YoY to Rs6.2bn due to increase in electricity duty on captive power generation in Odisha. On the volume front, alumina sales fell by 11% YoY and 31% QoQ to 259,000 tonne vs. our estimate of 330,000 tonne, largely due to inventory build-up ahead...