CLSA upgrades Ambuja Cements to 'buy'; shares gain

Cites reasonable valuations following recent correction

Shares in Ambuja Cements Ltd gained 1% after CLSA upgraded the stock to "buy" from "outperform", citing 'reasonable' valuations following recent correction.

CLSA said the stock now trades at 15 times its one-year forward earnings, which is broadly in line with the five-year average.

Cement stocks have been under pressure for the last few months following the negative news flow on weak industry demand growth while the increase in royalty by Holcim Ltd further impacted Ambuja and ACC Ltd.

While Ambuja is down 13.3% so far in 2013, ACC has fallen 18.9% in the same period, as of Monday's close.

 

The research house also says that Ambuja intends to start work on its Rajasthan expansion from the second half of 2013, which would add 4.5mtpa by 2015.