Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 131.95 points, or 1.70%, to 8460.76.

On BSE, 11.38 lakh shares were traded in the counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 19.64 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 77 and a low of Rs 73.40 so far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 219.50 on 5 May 2008 and a 52-week low of Rs 60 on 24 November 2008.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 2 March 2009, falling 4.58% as compared to the Sensex's 5.07% decline. It had, however, outperformed the market in the past one quarter, rising 3.75% as compared to the Sensex's fall of 1.51%.

India's biggest private sector iron ore exporter by sales has an equity capital of Rs 78.72 crore. Face value per share is Rs 1.

The current price of Rs 74.30 discounts its Q3 December 2008 annualised EPS of Rs 23.92, by a PE multiple of 3.10.

China is one of the largest consumers of iron ore in the world with annual imports of over 400 million tonne (mt). China consumes almost half of Indian ore shipments and slowdown in demand from the country post Olympic 2008 has hit Indian iron ore exporters.

Prices fetched by high-grade iron ore, with over 60% iron content, exported to China fell to $55-65 on 27 February 2009, from $60-75 on 11 February 2009.

According to Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) data, iron ore exports had recovered in two months from December 2008 to January 2009 when overall exports increased to 14 million tonne from 10-11 million tonne during the same period last year.

Reports suggest that orders for ore from China have now already dried up and stocks are piling up at ports.

Sesa Goa's net profit fell 7.3% to Rs 470.69 crore on a 14.9% rise in sales to Rs 1374.42 crore in Q3 December 2008 over Q3 December 2007.

Sesa Goa, an iron ore mining company of the Vedanta group, has been involved in iron ore mining, beneficiation and exports. It is also into the manufacture of pig iron and metallurgical coke.