Top cement stocks trade weak

Counters tumble over 10% after hitting 52-week high

Stocks of India's cement giants are under pressure amid benchmark indices inching higher.

Aditya Birla group's UltraTech Cement, after reporting a decline of 2.6% in its December quarter's profits, is trading at Rs 1,867, down 2.21% on the Bombay Stock Exchange. While, Swiss major Holcim-owned ACC and Ambuja Cements continue to remain weak in today's trade.

Poor sales, lower realisations and subdued demand growth for the building commodity have stoked weak sentiments on the counters.

ACC and Ambuja, which together have 55 million tonnes of annual cement manufacturing capacity, have softened ever since the news emerged of royalty of one% on sales to be given to Holcim for technology.

After hitting their recent highs, both the stocks have been beaten down. ACC, in particular, has been losing ground as its share price have seen continuous erosion of value. On the BSE,  stocks of ACC are trading at Rs 1,325 down 1.5%. This level is significantly lower than its recent 52-week high of Rs 1,514 a share.

Same goes with its sister-concern Ambuja. After slipping to Rs 185 early last week, though the counter made a strong bounce back, but it has again started losing the steam. It is currently trading at Rs 195.4 a share, which is over 11% decline against its 52-weeks high of Rs 220 in later part of the previous year.

Birla's firm UlraTech too has the same story which is trading 11% lower than its 52-week high of Rs 2,075.

Interestingly, in today's trade small cap and mid-cap cement counters have shown strength. Stocks like JK Cement, JK Lakshmi, Shree Cement and India Cements, among others were trading higher between 0.75% and 1.5%.

BSE's benchmark index or Sensex was at 20,100, up 61 points or 0.3% up.