Cement giant Ambuja reported a marginal fall in net profit for the year ended December 2013, despite an impressive quarter-on-quarter increase in December quarter net profit.

Ambuja Cements announced that its net profit increased 49.31 per cent to Rs 316.50 crore in the October to December quarter of 2013, but net profit in the twelve months through December 31 slipped 0.19 per cent to Rs 1294.57 crore.

Total income slipped 5.21 per cent to Rs 9553.97 crore in the year ended December 2013 over the year ended December 2012. In the Q4, total inclome slipped 5.19 per cent year-on-year to Rs 2297.62 crore.

On a consolidated basis, the company's net profit slipped 1.13 per cent to Rs 1278.57 crore in the year through December 31, 2013, over the previous year.

Rival cement producer ACC Ltd reported a rise of 9.7 per cent in consolidated net profit for October to December quarter to Rs. 275.71 crore. Its consolidated profit for the whole 2013 remained nearly flat at 1,094.67 crore.

In the October to December quarter of 2012, ACC, which is controlled by Swiss building material giant Holcim, had generated a net profit of Rs 251.24 crore.

Both Ambuja and ACC follow January to December accounting year. Both companies blamed lower realisations amid sluggishness in the domestic economy for their week results. Both companies said they didn't foresee any significant improvement in the domestic cement market in the near-term.