India's Orient Cement posts over 63% rise in Q3 profit on strong infra demand
05/02/2024 09:03
BENGALURU, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Indian cement maker Orient Cement ORCE.NS
reported a 63.5% year-on-year rise in third-quarter profit on Monday, helped by
strong demand for construction materials.
The company's net profit rose to 449.9 million rupees ($5.42 million) for the
quarter ended Dec. 31 from 275.2 million rupees a year earlier. Revenue from
operations rose 2.6% to 7.51 billion rupees.
Total expenses fell 1.1%, led by a 14.4% drop in power and fuel cost.
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KEY CONTEXT
Cement companies have been reporting substantial profit growth over the past couple
of quarters, led by the housing and infrastructure push by the Indian government
ahead of this year's general elections.
Cement prices, also, on average, rose 2.5% sequentially during the quarter,
brokerage Systematix said, helping manufacturers make more from their sales.
The sector has been seeing strong growth in the December quarter with larger
peers UltraTech Cement ULTC.NS , Shree Cement SHCM.NS and ACC ACC.NS topping
analysts' estimates, as per LSEG data.
Analysts at Elara Capital anticipate strong volume growth for the sector in the
fourth quarter, citing the beginning of the busy construction season and increased
pre-election government spending.
OCTOBER-DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment
(next 12 months)
months)
RIC PE EV/EBIT Revenue profit Mean # of Stock to Div
DA growth growth rating analy price yield
* sts target** (%)
Orient
JK
Cement
ACC
Dalmia
* Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell,
and Strong Sell
** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1
means the stock is trading above the PT
-- All data from LSEG
($1 = 83.0386 Indian rupees)
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Orient Cement Dec Qtr 2024 vs Peers https://tmsnrt.rs/482uvvo
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(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami)
((ashish.chandra@thomsonreuters.com; +91 7982114624;))