During the period under review, net sales was higher at Rs 242.80 crore against Rs 203.40 crore last year. Despite a modest increase in sales, the company's net profit shot up to Rs 50.05 crore from Rs 17.02 crore. This was possible due to all round cost reduction. Gross profit too surged from Rs 45.26 crore to Rs 80.69 crore during the period. Total expenditure rose only marginally from Rs 175.01 crore to Rs 184.86 crore.

At the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Gujarat Ambuja Cement scrip closed marginally higher at Rs 575 against its Tuesday close of Rs 572. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs 601 and the total volume in the counter was 5.83 lakh shares.

Operating profit increased from Rs 72.9 crore to Rs 103 crore, while cash profit was 79 per cent higher at Rs 80.7 crore. The operating profit per tonne rose sharply to Rs 861 from Rs 624, although the average selling price showed a modest increase from Rs 2,065 to Rs 2,341 during the period. Operating margins increased from 36 per cent to 42 per cent. The average price realisation increased to 125 in the first quarter from Rs 119 during the same period last year.

Interest charges dropped from Rs 27.69 crore were lower at Rs 22.34 crore, while provision for depreciation increased from Rs 28.24 crore to Rs 30.64 crore.

"We retired high-cost debt aggregating Rs 275 crore last year, and this has significantly brought down the interest charges. For the full year, our interest liability will be lower by around Rs 30 crore," GACL whole-time director Anil Singhvi said.

The company has not provided for tax in the first quarter. Gujarat Ambuja has said that provision for taxation will be provided at the end of the year.

"The first quarter is not a pointer for the full year as this period is relatively dull for the cement industry. There has not been much increase in the price realisation and the rise in profit is due to drastic reduction in costs," Singhvi said.

During the quarter, the company's volume sales increased marginally from 1.17 million tonnes to 1.20 million tonnes. However, the quarterly production was 6 per cent lower at 1.12 million tonnes.

The company expects the current buoyancy to continue and said that demand may grow by around 15 per cent in the current fiscal. "The company expects that the growth tempo of cement, started during this year, will continue," the company has said.