Oct 21 Reuters India39;s UltraTech Cement reported a biggerthanexpected decline in secondquarter profit on Monday, weighed by prices that fell to near fiveyear lows.

The country39;s top cement maker reported a 36 decline in consolidated net profit to 8.2 billion rupees for the quarter ended Sept. 30. Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 10.53 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.

This fuelled a 2.5 drop in the company39;s shares. They were down 0.3 before the results.

Cement prices hit a fiveyear low from the previous quarter, analysts said, due to an industrywide ramp up in production and thus supply, as companies sought to prepare to fill up mediumterm demand expectations.

Meanwhile, 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.

UltraTech39;s domestic sales volumes grew 3 in the second quarter, but remained below the 611 growth range reported in the last three quarters. It was also at the lowerend of the 28 range expected by analysts.

The second quarter is considered a seasonally weak period for cement makers as demand is subdued due to the monsoons, as a result of subdued construction activity.

All of this led to a 2.4 fall in revenue onyear to 156.35 billion rupees. This is the company39;s first quarterly decline in revenue since the June 2020 quarter, when construction came to a standstill due to…