HBL Engineering shares plunge most in over 18 months; here is why

Shares of HBL Engineering, the Hyderabad-based engineering company, posted their worst day in over 18 months on Friday, January 16, after it informed exchanges that it did not get order for loco Kavach tender for 6,300 units. HBL Engineering shares dropped as much as 13.65%, its biggest single day decline since June 4, 2024, to hit an intraday low of ₹758 on the BSE. On the National Stock Exchange, HBL Engineering shares fell as much as 13.72% to hit an intraday low of ₹757.70.

HBL Engineering said that it did not get any order from the CLW loco Kavach tender for 6,300 units because other bidder's prices were lower. The company's total expected demand has now reduced to 12,129 units from its earlier expectation of 18,429 units.

The company added that regarding Kavach station business, HBL has orders in hand of which ₹900 crore is planned to be invoiced during FY 2027. (And ₹400 crore more in FY 2028). More tenders are expected in FY 2027, of which some value may be delivered in FY 2027 itself.

Meanwhile, HBL Engineering shares were witnessing higher than usual trading activity following the update it provided to the stock exchanges.

Trading volume in HBL Engineering shares spiked by 6 times to 1.02 crore shares compared with an average trading volume of 17.10 lakh shares.

On the BSE, as many as 5.41 lakh shares changed hands compared with an average of 1.34 lakh shares traded daily in the past two weeks.

The Hyderabad-based HBL Engineering is a research based manufacturing company it seeks to fill technology gaps in India by developing and manufacturing complex products and solutions demanded in India today.

The first products we selected and successfully developed were Aircraft batteries - eventually leading to HBL manufacturing one of the world’s widest range of specialized batteries and becoming the leading supplier of batteries to the Indian Airforce.

As of 2:11 pm, HBL Engineering shares traded 9.82% lower at ₹792.60 and was the top loser in the NIFTY Smallcap 100 index which was down 0.35%.