The Adani Group-owned cement maker's profit after tax rose 39% to 5.14 billion rupees ($61.9 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, falling short of average analysts' estimates of 6.21 billion rupees, as per LSEG data.

Cement prices on an average rose 2.5% sequentially during the quarter across the country but were unable to outweigh a slowdown in demand, beleaguered by state elections and labour shortages, analysts noted.

Ambuja's consolidated volumes increased 2.9% to 14.1 million metric tons in the October-December period, lower than the 5.5% growth estimated by Jefferies.

Higher cement prices boosted the company's revenue by 7.5% to 44.4 billion rupees.

The company's power and fuel costs fell 29% on higher use of domestic coal.

Purchase of low-cost petcoke in the past few weeks would help to further optimise fuel costs in the coming quarters, Ambuja added.

However, rivals UltraTech Cement and ACC beat their respective profit estimates on price hikes and sustained infrastructure demand earlier this month.

($1 = 83.0425 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)