The Chennai-headquartered cement maker posted a loss of 57.2 million rupees ($622,568.09) in the quarter ended December 31, compared to a loss of 4.09 billion rupees a year earlier.
Revenue rose 23.5% to 11.14 billion rupees.
For further earnings highlights, click here.
KEY CONTEXT
Demand for construction materials is usually weak in India during the October-December period, as festivals in various parts of the country lead to a shortage of labour.
However, demand firmed materially last month, Jefferies said in a pre-earnings note, ahead of the seasonally strong January-March period when conditions are more favourable.Analysts see the Indian government’s move to cut taxes on cement bags to 18% from 28% as a demand driver.
Including the tax cuts, average pan-India cement prices dropped 6% on-year in the reported quarter, data from brokerage Ambit Capital showed.
UltraTech Cement is set to report its results on Saturday.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation Estimates Analysts’ (next 12 (next 12 sentiment months) months)
RIC PE EV Pr Revenu Profit Mea # Stoc Div /E ic e growth n of k to yie BI e/ growth (%) rat ana pric ld TD Sa (%) ing lys e (%) A le * ts targ s et**
India 67 18 – – – Sel 1 1.17 – Cements .8 .4 l Ltd 5 8 UltraTec 33 19 3. 12.33 34.37 Buy 37 0.91 0.6 h Cement .6 .0 62 3 Ltd 8 3
Dalmia 29 11 2. 9.79 20.70 Buy 35 0.90 0.4
Bharat .8 .8 60 2
Ltd 9 5
Ramco 37 14 – 11.36 74.50 Hol 23 1.04 0.1
Cements .2 .9 d 8
Limited 2 5
* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
** The ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT
OCTOBER-DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG
— $1 = 91.8775 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Harikrishnan Nair)