Star Cement hits 52-week high on heavy volumes; stock up 30% in 3 months

Cement consumption in the Eastern region (131 Kg) is although lower than the national average (195 Kg), the market is likely to witness positive change in near future.

Shares of Star Cement surged 7 per cent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 113.60 on Tuesday’s intra-day trade, in an otherwise a weak market. The company is the leading cement company in the North-Eastern India and one of the fastest-growing cement players in the industry.

At 01:30 PM; shares of Star Cement traded 4 per cent higher at Rs 110.65 apiece, as compared to 0.64 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The average trading volumes on the counter jumped nearly four-times on Tuesday. A combined 1.2 million shares representing nearly 1 per cent of the total free-float equity of the company changed hands on the NSE and BSE.

In the past three months, the stock rallied 30 per cent on strong demand outlook, as compared to 6 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. Moreover, in the past six months, the stock surged 19 per cent, as against 2.2 per cent decline in the benchmark index. Earlier, the stock had hit a record high of Rs 151 on January 9, 2018.

The management believes that upbeat infrastructure and housing demand will create an incremental cement demand of around 80 metric tonne (MT) over the next three fiscal years. The long-term factors driving the industry growth include the government's push on infrastructural development, which thereby increased housing demand due to rising working-age population, urbanisation, & nuclear families along with improving rural incomes.

That apart, the Indian government initiated various fonts for overall development of the North Eastern Region.

According to the management, though cement consumption in the Eastern region (131 Kg) is lower than the national average (195 Kg), the market is likely to witness a positive change in near future. This, thereby, would lead to higher contribution by the eastern market to domestic scale of production.

For North-Eastern states, the Centre is implementing various rail, road and air connectivity projects worth Rs 1.34 trillion. Around 20 railway projects worth Rs 74,000 crore for 2,011 km, which are spread across the northeast, 4,000 km of roads in the region at a total cost of Rs 58,000 crore, and 15 ongoing air connectivity projects in the northeast worth around Rs 2,200 crore.

"The implementation of aforesaid projects and initiatives of the Government will contribute in all round development in north east region which will pool cement demand and lead to increase in per capita consumption of cement and would help the company to increase its market share in the Region," Star Cement said