KARACHI, April 28: Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) announced results for the third-quarter ended March 31, 2004 on Wednesday, posting an after tax profit of Rs6.9 billion. That worked out to an earning per share (eps) of Rs1.59.

Mohammad Sohail, head of research at InvestCap thought that the results were better than market expectation, which had visualized earning per share of around Rs1.52. But more importantly, the Board also declared second interim dividend at Rs1.75 per share.

"The market was either expecting nil dividend or if at all around Re1 per share", said Sohail. The share in OGDC lost 10 paisa to close at Rs68.70. The stock saw the day's highest turnover of 127 million shares.

At one point the OGDC stock had dropped to Rs66, but following the announcement of the results, the share recovered. According to analysts, it was yet another day of extreme volatility at the stock market, which at one point was down 140 points, but recovered in 10 minutes of trading following the announcement of OGDC results at 2:05 pm.