The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 12 July 2007.

The scrip had touched a high of Rs 345.20 and a low of Rs 343.95 during the day.

On BSE, 1,828 shares were traded in the scrip.The stock had an average daily volume of 4,747 shares on BSE in the past one quarter.

The company’s equity capital is Rs 3.20 crore, with 32 lakh outstanding shares of a face value of Rs 10 each.

At the current price of Rs 343.95 the scrip trades at a PE multiple of 18.28, based on year ended March 2007 EPS of Rs 18.81.

The Birla Kennametal scrip had gained 63.84% in the one month to 12 July 2007 versus the Sensex's 7.78% rise. It had added 106.27% in the past three months against the Sensex's 12.76% return.

The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 415 on 10 July 2007 and a 52-week low of Rs 85.55 on 24 July 2006.

On 12 July 2007, the Yash Birla Group said it had ended its joint venture with Kennametal, USA, by purchasing the entire stake of 14.20 lakh equity shares from the US entity.

Consequently, Yash Birla group’s total shareholding in the company increased to 88.48%.

Birla Kennametal’s net profit rose 114.3% to Rs 1.65 crore in Q4 March 2007 as against Rs 0.77 crore in Q4 March 2006. Sales moved up 51.5% to Rs 6.68 crore in Q4 March 2007 (Rs 4.41 crore).

Net profit scaled up 166.4% to Rs 6.02 crore in the year ended March 2007 as against Rs 2.26 crore in FY 2006. Sales jumped 59.2% to Rs 24.21 crore in FY 2007 (Rs 15.21 crore).

Birla Kennametal provides engineering services and manufactures machine tools.