Gujarat Ambuja Q1 net lags forecast

India’s third-largest cement maker, Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd. reported a 7 per cent rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday, below street expectations as floods in its key market hit sales. With the monsoon season over the company, valued at $2.05 billion, expects to do better in the coming quarters, an official said.

"The first quarter numbers are no indication of what is in store for the next few quarters," Jayesh Doshi, assistant vice president at Gujarat Ambuja, said.

"We expect exports to do well as demand remains pretty strong from the Middle East," Doshi said, adding the firm hoped to raise exports to 2Mt for the full year from 1.7Mt last year.

"The numbers are shocking and many analysts should now be revising their rating on the stock. I expect the company to do better in the coming quarters," Jaspreet Singh Arora, an analyst at Angel Broking Ltd., said.

Gujarat Ambuja shipped 2.9 million tonnes of cement in the past quarter, unchanged from a year earlier, but exports fell nearly 40 per cent to 320,000t as the floods disrupted port operations.