Oct 21 Reuters India39;s UltraTech Cement said on Monday it was seeing early signs of a price recovery, after it reported a sharp drop in secondquarter profit due to persistently low prices of the construction material.

Prices have been improving since the end of August and so far in October, have held steady, Atul Daga, UltraTech39;s finance chief said in a postearnings call.

Daga said the price of a cement bag was currently at 354 rupees 4.21, up from 347 rupees at the end of August.

Cement prices hit a fiveyear low of 336 rupees per bag in the September quarter, Ambit Capital said, due to an industrywide ramp up in production and thus supply, as companies sought to prepare to fill up mediumterm demand expectations.

Additionally, demand for cement, which was already hit by an electionlinked slowdown in construction in the first quarter, did not improve in the reported quarter, due to aboveaverage monsoon rainfall.

Both of these weighed on the company39;s financials.

India39;s largest cement maker by capacity reported a 36 decline in net profit to 8.2 billion rupees for the quarter ended Sept. 30, far below the 10.53 billion rupees expected by analysts according to data compiled by LSEG.

It also reported its first quarterly decline in revenue since June 2020, when construction had come to a standstill due to the COVID19 lockdown.

The company39;s domestic sales volumes grew 3, below the 611 growth range reported in the last three quarters and at the lowerend of…