HPCL share price zoomed 8.6 per cent to Rs 202.90 apiece on BSE after the company’s board approved a share buyback proposal worth Rs 2,500 crore. The board of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd has approved the proposal to buy back 10 crore shares, which represents 6.56 per cent equity share, at Rs 250 per share. The stock has soared 31 per cent from March low of Rs 155 apiece. Earlier, on Wednesday, the company reported a two-fold jump in net profit at Rs 2,477 crore in the July-September quarter. Analysts believe that with great results and board approval of the buyback, HPCL is looking strong on the charts. “Despite all these positive news, the fact remains that PSU stocks have been laggards and any upmove should be used to exit previous buy positions,” Abhijeet Ramachandran, Independent Analyst/ Co-Founder and trainer at Tips2trade, told Financial Express Online.
Ramachandran also said that investors should look to exit at 200 which is the immediate resistance and 240-250 which will be the next big resistance for HPCL. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,052 crore in the year-ago period. Research and brokerage firm Motilal Oswal Financial Services has maintained a ‘buy’ rating to the stock post second-quarter earnings.
The buyback price is at 34 per cent premium from the previous close of Rs 186.75 apiece. The buyback will be done through market transactions and will be completed within six months. The company attributed the rise in profit to higher capacity utilisation of its refineries and higher sales of high margin products as it processed more crude oil purchased at lower rates. Motilal Oswal in its report said that the company’s debt remains similar to end-Mar’20 levels at Rs 34,600 crore (and Rs 32,000 crore excluding lease liability).
HPCL Chairman Mukesh Kumar Surama said that the significant improvement in the profitability despite challenges including Covid-19 induced lockdown was a result of strategic planning in refinery and marketing operation, containing the degrowth to less than the industry, efficient inventory management and effective product placement leveraging company’s excellent marketing infrastructure.
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