Coal India shares shot up in early trade on Wednesday after the company posted strong first-quarter results, beating street estimates by quite a margin.

What Happened: The state-owned firm posted a consolidated net profit of ₹7,941.4 crore for the quarter ended June, which is a 10% drop from the ₹8,834.22 crore it earned last year.

However, the profit numbers outshined analyst forecasts, with three brokerages projected a net profit of ₹6,125 crore on average.

Coal India’s quarterly revenue from operations came in at ₹35,943.21 crore, reflecting a 2.5% growth from last year’s ₹35,092.17 crore.

Growing Expenses: The company’s total expenses mushroomed 11.5% during the quarter to ₹26,745.68 crore. One of the key drivers for this surge in expenses was Coal India’s decision to raise wages for non-executive staff.

On the production front, CIL reported an uptick in raw coal output, hitting 175.476 million tonnes in this quarter compared with 159.753 million tonnes a year ago.

Moreover, raw coal off-take jumped as well, reaching 186.950 million tonnes from the 177.490 million tonnes recorded in the previous year.

Price Action: Coal India’s share price jumped 1.50% to 233.70 at open on Wednesday.

Read Next: Indian Creators Are Earning Lakhs On Elon Musk’s X: What’s Going On?