Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - While many stocks in the building materials sector like steel orplastic have surged recently, cement stocks are still hovering around a lowprice zone.

According todata compiled by the Department of Building Materials, Ministry ofConstruction, in the first four months of 2021, consumption of cementproducts is estimated to reach 34.58 million tonnes, up 16.5 percentyear-on-year. 

Of which,domestic consumption accounted for around 19.44 million tonnes, aslight increase over the same period last year, while exports ofcement products jumped 65 percent over 2020 to 15.14 million tonnes. 

Besides gainsin consumption, many cement companies also raised product prices.Accordingly, Vicem Hoang Mai Cement JSC (HOM) has increased selling prices ofall cement products by 30,000 VND per tonne, which apply for provincesincluding Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh. 

Bim Son CementJSC (BCC) also raised its product prices by 30,000 VND per tonne from April 21.Hoang Long Cement JSC, Long Son Co., LTD and Duyen Ha Co., LTD increasedtheir prices by 40,000 VND per tonne at the same time. 

However, inthe stock market, these companies' performance was not as good as theirproduct prices. 

After positiveresponses to higher cement prices for a short time, cement stocks fell sharplysince early April. 

Ha Tien 1Cement JSC (HT1) shares dropped more than 17 percent since April to trade at 15,300VND per share on May 27.

Similarly, BCCshares tumbled over 18.5 percent during the same period to 10,100 VND per shareon May 28.

After climbingfor ten straight sessions in early April, Vicem Hai Van Cement JSC (HVX) sharesplunged 37.5 percent to trade at 4,450 VND per share on May 27. 

The marketprices of most cement stocks are currently hovering around their par value.

Gains incement selling prices will be reflected in the second quarter business resultsof cement companies, while the first quarter business results of some companieswere poor, resulting in the appeal of cement stocks declining.

In the firstquarter, Bim Son Cement posted an increase of 0.88 percent year-on-yearin net revenue to 1.06 trillion VND, while its profit after tax declinedby 61 percent to over 7.2 billion VND. 

The companyexplained that its profit fell in the first quarter due to higher cost of goodssold, outweighing gains in revenues and falls in expenses for financialactivities, sales expenses and general and administrative expenses.

Meanwhile, HaTien 1’s net revenue also rose slightly by 0.5 percent year-on-year to 1.74trillion VND in the first quarter of 2021. But its profit after tax edged 9.5 percentdown to 94.7 billion VND. 

HT1 shares waseliminated from the portfolio of MSCIFrontier Markets Small Cap Index and thecompany’s leaders registered to sell a huge amount of stocks, which forced HT1shares to enter a bear market./.