Shree Cement promises price cut as the Adani onslaught looms large on the entire industry

Motilal Oswal has maintained a Neutral rating on the stock and reduced the target price to Rs 23,740 from Rs 26,215 earlier on the back of below-estimate earnings. "We maintain our Neutral rating on reducing

cost benefits v/s its peers," it said.

The Holcim deal — one of the largest acquisitions by an Indian group — makes Adani Group the second-largest cement maker in the country after Aditya Birla Group’s UltraTech Cement.

However, Bangur doesn't think Adani will be aggressive on the pricing front though the deal would increase competition in the market.

"Adani has come and they have definitely... They will be able to have lots of synergies with their existing infra business. So, the competition should be a little better or tough, I will say whatever way you look at it. There will not be any changes in prices. We have to wait for six months before we can decide how the markets will move further," he said, adding that it won't impact supply dynamics in the market.

Bangur expects the demand to improve in the next few months and says the cement industry will pass the entire benefit of lower fuel costs to consumers.

Global real estate services company Colliers says developers have been under pressure to raise prices as cost of construction materials has seen a double-digit surge in recent times and the government’s intervention to control the rise by rationalising duties will benefit the end consumers.

"In this scenario, the government’s intervention to control this rise by rationalizing duties and taxes on key inputs is timely and is likely to have a positive trickledown effect to the end consumers," said Ramesh Nair, CEO, India and Managing Director, Market Development, Asia, Colliers.