Input cost worries! ACC, Ambuja, UltraTech slip 3%; down heavily in a month

Apart from higher coal/petcoke prices, the recent increase in crude prices/ocean freight rates may further put pressure on operating costs for the cement industry.

Shares of cement manufacturers traded weak, down 3 per cent in Thursday’s intra-day trade on the BSE on concerns of earnings downgrade due to rising energy cost.

Ambuja Cements, UltraTech Cement, JK Cement, Dalmia Bharat and ACC were down in the range of 2 per cent to 3 per cent. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.24 per cent at 55,603 at 10:40 am.

In the past one month, the stock price of Dalima Bharat, JK Cement, Ambuja Cements, JK Lakshmi Cement, Birla Corporation, UltraTech Cement, Prism Johnson and HeidelbergCement India declined between 15 per cent