Cement shares in focus; UltraTech, India Cements, JK Lakshmi hit new highs

ACC, Sagar Cements, Sanghi Ind, Mangalam Cement, KCP and Gujarat Sidhee up in the range of 3% to 10%

Shares of cement companies were in focus with the market value of five stocks – UltraTech Cement, India Cements, JK Lakshmi Cement, Sagar Cements and Sanghi Industries – hitting their respective new highs on expectation of higher demand.

ACC, Sagar Cements, Sanghi Industries, Mangalam Cement, KCP and Gujarat Sidhee Cement were up in the range of 3% to 10% on BSE. On comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.54% or 163 points at 30,485 at 1:37 pm.

Dalmia Bharat while announcing January-March quarter results on May 10 said that it expects cement demand to follow an upward trajectory due to concerted efforts by the Central Government on infrastructure development and affordable housing. The industry expects to witness less capacity additions in future due to increased entry barriers.

According to analysts at Elara Capital, total house execution in rural area rose by 78% to 3.2 million in FY17 over FY16. Rural execution has tripled since FY15 (1.1 million).

“On the back of a sharp increase in execution, we expect cement demand growth to increase from 2% in FY17E to 7% in FY18E and 8% in FY19E. We expect all-India utilization to have bottomed out in FY17, due to demand recovery and limited capacity addition. We expect North and Central India to regain pricing power. Thus, we prefer companies with a higher presence in North and Central India, such as JK Lakshmi Cement, Heidelberg Cement and Prism Cement,” the brokerage firm said in recent report.

ICRA, research firm, expects cement demand to grow by around 4 to 5% during the financial year 2017-18 driven mainly by the infrastructure segment through housing, road and irrigation projects.

"Going forward, we expect prices to be supported by a marginal improvement in capacity utilisation. The slowdown in new capacity addition and improvement in the supply-demand scenario in FY 2018 should support capacity utilisation levels and thereby cement prices," Icra Ratings Senior Vice President and Group Head Sabyasachi Majumdar said.

However, he also warned that the rising costs continue to put pressure on profitability indicators for cement manufacturers in the coming quarters, the PTI report suggests. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT.

COMPANY	LATEST	1-YEAR BEFORE	GAIN(%)
INDIA CEMENTS	222.00	163.15	36.07
KAKATIYA CEMENT	436.00	321.35	35.68
SANGHI INDS.	87.65	69.00	27.03
OCL INDIA	1234.00	1003.05	23.02
DALMIA BHAR.	2578.90	2118.25	21.75
PRISM CEMENT	124.75	102.90	21.23
J K CEMENTS	1121.00	934.25	19.99
SAGAR CEMENTS	920.00	773.05	19.01
ACC	1727.70	1491.00	15.88
SHREE CEMENT	20250.00	17670.85	14.60
SAURASHTRA CEM.	74.90	65.75	13.92
JK LAKSHMI CEM.	517.90	455.45	13.71
ANDHRA CEMENTS	9.85	8.73	12.83
GUJ. SIDHEE CEM.	31.90	28.50	11.93
ULTRATECH CEM.	4493.00	4018.15	11.82