More Stories

 

Informist, Friday, May 22, 2026

 

By Shruti Nair

 

MUMBAI – JK Cement Ltd.'s net profit for the March quarter is expected to fall on year for the second consecutive quarter. The expected decline in the company's bottom line would largely be driven by higher input costs in the quarter in the wake of the war in West Asia. The company's revenue for the March quarter is seen rising both on year and on a sequential basis driven by its grey cement segment. This is in line with the trend in the cement industry.

 

JK Cement is expected to post a net profit of INR 3.17 billion for the March quarter, down nearly 13% on year, according to an average of estimates from 14 brokerages. The highest estimate for the bottom line is INR 3.85 billion from Nirmal Bang Equities Pvt. Ltd. The lowest estimate is INR 2.36 billion from Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd.

 

Most brokerages have highlighted the impact of higher input costs on the sector following the disruptions in West Asia. Coal prices have risen 17% on year while imported petroleum coke prices are up 10-12%, according to Nirmal Bang. Both are key input materials for the cement industry and are used for heating. Sequentially, the company's net profit is seen jumping 40% from the December quarter.

 

JK Cement is expected to post net sales of INR 37.33 billion for the reporting quarter, up nearly 12% on year, based on the average of estimates. The highest estimate for the top line is INR 41.81 billion from Nirmal Bang and the lowest is INR 33.89 billion from Nuvama. Sequentially, the cement maker's net sales are seen up over 16%.

 

Three brokerages expect the company's grey cement volumes to rise 11-12% on year. The grey cement segment accounted for roughly 90% of the cement maker's volumes in the December quarter. In the March quarter a year ago, the company's grey cement volumes were 5.39 million tonnes. In the December quarter, they were 5.32 million tonnes. Brokerages expect realisations from the grey cement segment to improve 1-3% on quarter. Mixed pricing trends seen in Jan-Mar have kept the improvement in sector-wide realisations marginal, according to Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd.

 

The company's volumes from the white cement segment in the March quarter are seen rising around 8% on year, according to Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd. In the year-ago quarter, the company had reported white cement volumes of 430,000 tonnes. In the December quarter, the volumes were 460,000 tonnes.

 

The company's blended volumes for the March quarter are seen at 6.5 million tonnes, up over 12% on year, driven by volume growth in the grey cement segment, according to Kotak Securities Ltd. The brokerage estimates blended realisations to fall 1.7% on year but rise 1.5% on quarter led by an improvement in non-trade prices.

 

Kotak Securities sees the cement maker's unit earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation falling 18% on year.  However, the metric is expected to rise 12% sequentially to INR 1,037 per tonne on a combination of higher realisations and operating leverage. The sequential improvement in the metric is an industry-wide trend driven by operating leverage and improvement in non-trade prices, which are up around 4% sequentially, according to Elara Securities (India) Pvt. Ltd.

 

JK Cement's EBITDA for the March quarter is estimated at INR 6.82 billion, according to an average of estimates from 12 brokerages. This is down over 7% from INR 7.36 billion in the year-ago quarter. Sequentially, however, the cement maker's EBITDA is seen rising over 27%. The highest estimate for the EBITDA is INR 7.40 billion from Systematix Shares and Stocks (India) Ltd., while the lowest is INR 5.85 billion from ICICI Securities Ltd.

 

JK Cement has an installed grey cement capacity of about 31.26 million tonnes per annum, alongside 1.12 million tonnes per annum of white cement capacity and 1.33 million tonnes per annum of wall putty capacity. The company has an international presence through its subsidiaries, JK Cement Works Fujairah FZC and JK White Cement (Africa) Ltd.

 

Friday, JK Cement shares on the National Stock Exchange closed at INR 5,557.50, down slightly from Thursday's close. The stock is down nearly 5% since the company released its December quarter earnings in January. JK Cement will announce its March quarter earnings Saturday.

 

Of the 14 brokerage reports on the company available with Informist, 13 have a "buy" or equivalent recommendation on the stock with an average target price of INR 6,736, up over 21% from the current market price. The sole exception has a "hold" recommendation.

 

Following are the Jan-Mar earnings estimates for JK Cement, in INR billion, from 14 brokerage firms in descending order of the net profit estimate:

 

Brokerage	Net Sales	Net Profit	EBITDA
Nirmal Bang Equities Pvt. Ltd.	41.81	3.85	7.20
Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers Ltd.	35.69	3.72	--
Systematix Shares and Stocks (India) Ltd.	38.30	3.60	7.40
Kotak Securities Ltd.	36.82	3.24	6.76
Batlivala & Karani Securities India Pvt. Ltd.	35.33	3.23	--
Equirus Securities Pvt. Ltd.	39.41	3.16	7.25
Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd.	36.52	3.15	6.88
JM Financial Institutional Securities Pvt. Ltd.	35.48	3.13	7.01
HDFC Securities Ltd.	38.85	3.12	7.26
Elara Securities (India) Pvt. Ltd.	35.70	3.10	6.70
Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd.	40.49	3.06	6.94
Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.	38.46	2.95	6.71
ICICI Securities Ltd.	35.84	2.65	5.85
Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd.	33.89	2.36	5.88
Average	37.33	3.17	6.82

 

End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.