As many as 1.17 lakh shares changed hands on the BSE.

The stock has come off a high of Rs 188.15 on 3 May, to hit a low of Rs 91.65 on 14 June, as the broader market reeled under intense volatility. Here, it found support and rose to Rs 122.95 on 22 June, only to slip back to Rs 97.15 on 24 July. Here, the stock rose to Rs 125.83 by 9 August 2006, only to slip to Rs 112.10 by 1 September. Thereafter, the stock appreciated to Rs 116.70 by 12 September 2006.

At the current market price of Rs 120.15, Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (HOEC) trades at 13.42 times its Q1 June 2006 annualized EPS of Rs 8.95.

India's Directorate General of Hydrocarbons has approved the transfer of operatorship of an oil block from Premier Oil North East India BV to Hindustan Oil Exploration Co.

Earlier this month, HOEC had issued 19,581,645 equity shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 66 per equity share, collecting Rs 148.82 crore through a rights issue in the ratio of one equity share for every three held. The issue remains open from 7 September 2006 till 6 October 2006. The last date for receiving request for split application form is 22 September 2006. The issue price is 7.6 times of the face value of the equity share.

In May, HOEC had written off exploration expenses relating to two oil wells in a single block, amounting to about Rs 35.7 crore.

HOEC is an independent exploration and production company, which operates in the offshore oil and gas exploration segment. HOEC currently operates in nine fields of which the Cauvery basin is the most promising.

Recently, HOEC registered a net profit growth of 82.40% to Rs 13.15 crore (Rs 7.21 crore) for Q1 June 2006. Net sales during the period under consideration rose 82.2% to Rs 31.09 crore from Rs 17.06 crore.