Increased selling prices and improved sales volumes are expected to help Indian producers post a higher net profit for the October-December 2011 quarter.
Aditya Birla is expected to report a 48 per cent rise in net profit to INR4.72bn and a 21 per cent rise in sales to INR44.82bn, according to an average of estimates by 10 analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.
ACC is forecast a 53 per cent rise in net profit to INR2.39bn and a 25.5 per cent growth in sales to INR24.18bn. Meanwhile Ambuja is projected to post a 57 per cent rise in net profit to INR3.02bn, according to the estimates. Sales are seen rising 28 per cent to INR22.84bn.
In a report by the Economic Times of India, cement analyst Ravi Sodah of Elara Capital believes that north based producers will perform better in the 3Q than those with operations in the south. “Earnings' improvement is likely to be much more higher for the north-based players and players having presence in Gujarat due to strong pricing improvement in the region and the strong demand that was there during the quarter but the performance of south based player is likely to be subdued on sequential basis.”
