Observers pointed out that the CESC scrip managed to hold its priceline through the second half of June, although the market had gone into a freefall and the company itself had announced its worst-ever results. During this period, the RPG power utility was also the subject of stormy debates in the West Bengal legislative assembly over a fuel surcharge refund case.

The scrip, which hit a 52-week low on both the Bombay and Calcutta Stock Exchanges on June 16, was hovering around Rs 31 at the close of last week.

On June 12, CESC announced its first full-year loss in its 100-year history. On June 15, the BSE 30-share sensitive index began its freefall, with a plunge of 194 points as Indian stockmarkets caught the Asian flu. By the end of June, the Sensex had lost 392points since its June 2 closing of 3,642 points. By contrast, the CESC scrip lost just eight points.

Heavy trading in the CESC scrip began on Thursday, June 18. The following Monday, the West Bengal legislative assembly was scheduled to discuss power minister Sankar Sen's department.

In the week beginning June 22, CESC's fuel surcharge issue made headlines as opposition legislators tabled confidential papers containing scathing criticism of CESC by the power minister. Even as Sen voiced his disapproval of the permission given to CESC to collect "arrear fuel surcharge" from its consumers, the scrip not only held steady but moved up to touch Rs 32 on June 25 from a 52-week low of Rs 23.50 on June 16 at the CSE.

CESC reported a loss of Rs 125 crore for the year to March 31, 1998, against a net profit of Rs 41 crore for the previous year. The board approved the financials on June 12.

The company has been in the thick of a storm over the collection of fuel surcharge from consumers amounting to Rs 94 crorefor three years -- 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1995-96.

Chief minister Jyoti Basu has allowed CESC to collect the arrears, going by the findings of auditors SR Batliboi as endorsed by the special one-man DK Bose committee. Sen was upset because Bose had done a volte face -- Bose's first report last year had said that CESC owes its consumers Rs 93 crore.

Market sources pointed out that there was "interested buying in large volumes of the CESC scrip by a Calcutta-based broker reported to be close to the RPG management".

However, the sources are unanimous that the buying is not being done by the RPG management, as the company is cash-strapped.

At the BSE, the scrip touched a 52-week low of Rs 22.75 and a high of Rs 25.50 on June 16. However, on June 19, the last day of that week, 2,23,750 scrips were traded worth Rs 63.16 lakh.

The scrip had been among the top 15 heavily traded scrip on four consecutive days at the CSE starting from June 22, the day on which the power minister Sankar Sen made his displeasureon the fuel surcharge issue public.

On June 22, the scrip had opened at Rs 27.90 and closed at Rs 29.26 at the CSE. The scrip witnessed trading of 1,41,050 scrips worth Rs 39 lakh.

On June 23, opposition members led by Abdul Mannan of the Congress(I) tabled confidential documents that had caustic margin notes made by the power minister.

Sen had accused CESC of "intentionally" delaying its 500mw Budge Budge project coming up near Calcutta, so that it can inflate the capital base and thus earn higher returns. Sen had said that the project cost was also inflated because of "cut-money on each and every order".

On this day too, the scrip held steady with 78,550 shares traded on the CSE and 1,20,196 shares on the BSE, together worth Rs 56.28 lakh.

The price hovered between Rs 27.10 and Rs 29 at these two exchanges.

On June 24, the value of trading on this scrip at CSE nearly doubled to Rs 42.33 lakh while at BSE it came down to Rs 23.71 lakh. The combined trading value of the shares went up to Rs 66.04lakh. The share scrip at one point even crossed the Rs 30 mark.

On June 26, the volume and value of this scrip traded at the CSE more than doubled to Rs 98.49 lakh with 3,13,700 shares being traded while at BSE the value of the 77050 shares traded was Rs 24.24 lakh.