HEG surges on buyback plan

HEG surged 12.38% to Rs 267.70 at 14:22 IST on BSE after company said its board will meet on 19 August 2008 to consider share buyback proposal.

The company announced this during market hours today, 11 August 2008.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 300.49 points, or 1.98%, to 15,468.31 on strong cues from global equities. A slide in oil prices to their lowest level in three months powered a rally in US stocks on Friday, 8 August 2008.

On BSE, 2.08 lakh shares were traded in the counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 29,626 shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 276.70 and a low of Rs 239 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 609 on 1 January 2008 and a 52-week low of Rs 174 on 2 July 2008.

The small-cap scrip had outperformed the market over the past one month till 8 August 2008, gaining 20.82% compared to the Sensex's return of 13.62%. It had however underperformed the market in the past one quarter, declining 18.07% compared to Sensex's decline of 11.2%.

The company has an equity capital of Rs 44.32 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The current price of Rs 267.70 discounts its Q1 June 2008 annualised EPS of Rs 26.63, by a PE multiple of 10.05.

Earlier on 31 July 2008 the board had decided to defer the decision on buyback till the next board meeting. The board at that time needed some more information relating to the trading in the equity shares of the company and also on the impact of the proposed buyback on the company and therefore the decision was deferred.

HEG is the second largest integrated graphite electrode manufacturer in the world.

The company's net profit rose 3.6% to Rs 29.51 crore on 5.6% rise in sales to Rs 237.29 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007.