Bhel surged to its new 52-week high of Rs 252 on the BSE on Thursday on the back of good buying support.

By 14:25 IST, the scrip of the state-run electrical equipment maker eased a bit, but was still up by 1.69% at Rs 249 on the BSE, recovering from its low of Rs 243. Over 220,000 shares changed hands on the counter. In the last six months, the scrip rose by 75% from its new 52-week low of Rs 144 on 1 November 2002.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex stood at 2,955.93, down by 24.81 points.

The Bharat Heavy Electricals stock has been in the limelight following sustained positive developments, which is expected to improve the financials of the company. Meanwhile the passage of the Electricity Bill in Parliament is expected to benefit Bhel and the power sector at large. On Monday, the Rajya Sahba (upper house of Parliament) gave its consent to the Bill. The Lok Sabha has already approved it in April 2003.

Last week, Bhel unveiled its fourth quarter and full year results. For Q4 ended 31 March 2003, the company recorded a 2.6% rise in net profit to Rs 376.10 crore (Rs 3.76 billion) on a 3% increase in total income to Rs 3,260.84 crore (Rs 32.6 billion).

A capitalmarket.com poll had estimated Bhel's Q4 net profit in the range of Rs 414-420 crore (Rs 4.14-4.2 billion). Net sales were expected somewhere between Rs 3,763 crore and Rs 3,800 crore (Rs 37.63 and Rs 38 billion). Thus, the optimistic expectations were belied on the net profit as well as net sales front.

For the year ended 31 March 2003, the company's net profit stood at Rs 517.06 crore (Rs 5.17 billion) on total income of Rs 7,206.56 crore (Rs 72.06 billion).

However, things may look up for Bhel in the current fiscal, following its strong order book position. Earlier, there were reports that the company expects a double-digit growth in the current financial year. To vindicate those expectations is the fact that the company has orders worth Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion). Of these, 70% was received in the previous financial year.

Bhel is the largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise of its kind in India, and a leading international company in the field of power equipment manufacture. The Centre has decided to sell 17% equity stake in Bhel to bring down its holding to 51% from 67.7%.