HEG tumbles as board defers buyback decision

HEG slumped 7.94% to Rs 250 at 11:53 IST on BSE after the company deferred buyback plan till the next board meeting.

The company made this announcement after market hours yesterday, 31 July 2008. Ahead of the announcement, the stock had surged 13.29% to Rs 271.55

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 63.08 points, or 0.44%, to 14,292.67 on weak cues from global markets. US stocks fell on Thursday, 31 July 2008, led by Exxon Mobil after its earnings fell short of Wall Street's expectations and as disappointing economic data revived fears of a US recession.

On BSE, 49,644 shares were traded in the counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 24,682 shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 261 and a low of Rs 248 so far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 609 on 1 January 2008 and a 52-week low of Rs 174 on 2 July 2008.

Earlier after trading hours on 21 July 2008, HEG had announced that its board will consider buyback of shares on 31 July 2008. The stock surged 27.39% from Rs 213.15 on 21 July 2008 to Rs 271.55 on 31 July 2008, boosted by the buy-back proposal.

The small-cap company had outperformed the market over the past one month till 31 July 2008, gaining 29.99% compared to the Sensex's return of 5.06%. It outperformed the market in the past one quarter, declining 16.89% compared to Sensex's decline of 18.43%.

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

The current price of Rs 250 discounts its Q1 June 2008 annualised EPS of Rs 26.63, by a PE multiple of 9.38.

The company's net profit rose 3.60% to Rs 29.51 crore on 5.6% rise in net sales to Rs 237.29 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007.

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