ACC ends in green in a sinking market, thanks to Q1 profit

MUMBAI: ACC was the top performing stock on the Nifty in early trade after the cement major’s first quarter profit met Street expectations despite a drop in cement sales.

The stock touched an intraday high of Rs 1630 and closed the day up over 1% at Rs 1614.40.

The stock ended the day at Rs 1,614.40, up 1.24%, on the BSE.

Operating performance improves on the back of an increase in cement prices in some regions.

The company reported consolidated net profit of Rs 237 crore against a net profit of Rs 399.8 crore, Year-on-Year. It was in-line with ET Now expectation of Rs 238 crore.

Consolidated Q1 sales in the quarter ended March 2015 stood at Rs 2,885 crore against Rs 2,967 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Goldman Sachs in its post Q1 result note said ACC’s cash costs/tonne were lower than estimate while key costs like power & fuel and freight were in line with estimate.

The volumes declined 10 per cent due to weak demand and demand weakness is likely to continue in the near term.

The brokerage has retained ‘Sell’ rating on the stock with target price of Rs 1,510.