Northern Star posts higher quarterly gold sales revenue but misses estimates

Oct 21 (Reuters) - Australia's Northern Star Resources NST.AX on Wednesday reported a 7.2% rise in first-quarter revenue from gold sales, helped by higher average gold sale prices that offset lower volumes from planned shutdowns, but missed market expectations.

Bullion traded higher during the September quarter, as central bank buying and geopolitical uncertainty helped the gold miner report a higher average realised gold price of A$4,999 per ounce, compared with A$4,452 a year earlier.

This made up for the lower volumes due to planned major shutdowns that hit its three production centres.

The gold miner, which recently rejected a A$38.7 billion takeover offer from South Africa's Gold Fields GFIJ.J, said quarterly gold sold totalled 364 koz, compared with 381.1 koz from a year before.

The country's top gold producer's revenue from gold sales came in at A$1.82 billion ($1.27 billion) for the quarter ended September 30, compared with A$1.70 billion a year earlier. That missed the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$1.93 billion.

($1 = 1.4290 Australian dollars)