(Reuters) - India's Ramco Cements posted a nearly 75% fall in second-quarter profit on Monday, hurt by subdued demand in the monsoon season and falling prices.

The company's net profit after tax for its standalone business, which comprises its cement segment, dropped to 255.8 million rupees ($3 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30 from 1.01 billion rupees a year earlier.

Revenue fell 12.5% to 20.38 billion rupees.

For further results highlights, click

KEY CONTEXT

Cement prices hit a five-year low in the September quarter, according to Ambit Capital, due to an industry-wide ramp-up in production to meet medium-term demand expectations, leading to greater supply.

Last month, market leader UltraTech Cement posted its first quarterly revenue drop in four years on lower cement prices, but flagged early signs of price recovery.

Additionally, cement demand, already hit by a slowdown in construction in the quarter ended June 30 when India voted in the general election, did not improve in the reported quarter, due to an above-average monsoon.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment

(next 12 months)

months)

RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean No of Stock to price Div

TDA growth growth rating* analysts target** yield

(%) (%) (%)

JK Lakshmi Cement 18.84 8.91 8.91 14.37 Hold 11 0.93 0.80

India Cements 128.78 25.12 4.98 NULL Sell 5 1.44 0.00

Ramco Cements 39.22 13.78 8.28 31.97 Hold 19 1.01 0.28

Nuvoco Vistas 51.50 10.06 4.89 103.90 Hold 15 0.96 NULL

Corporation

* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

JULY-SEPTEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 84.3570 Indian rupees

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan and Dimpal Gulwani; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Janane Venkatraman)