The company announced the results on Saturday, 12 May 2012.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 42.06 points or 0.26% to 16,335.04.

On BSE, 2.16 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 10.86 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 52.20 and a low of Rs 49.10 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 44.80 on 18 January 2012. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 133.25 on 12 May 2011.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 11 May 2012, declining 1.98% compared with the Sensex's 5.27% fall. The scrip had, however, underperformed the market in past one quarter, falling 21.3% as against Sensex's 8.2% fall.

The mid-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 1427.59 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Essar Oil's (EOL) net sales jumped 31.5% to Rs 17514 crore in Q4 March 2012 over Q4 March 2011. The company reported net loss of Rs 4199 crore in the year ended 31 March 2012, compared with net profit of Rs 654 crore in the year ended 31 March 2011. Net sales rose 24% to Rs 58248 crore in the year ended 31 March 2012 over the year ended 31 March 2011.

The company said earnings before interest taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) plunged 51% to Rs 444 crore in Q4 March 2012 over Q4 March 2011. The current price gross refining margin (GRM) declined to $4.60 per barrel from $5.29 per barrel in Q4 March 2011. Throughput at 4.03 MMT in Q4 March 2012 was up 10.4% against 3.65 MMT in Q4 March 2011 due to increase in the refinery capacity, Essar Oil said.

Commenting on the results, Mr LK Gupta, Managing Director and CEO, Essar Oil said, "We have completed a very challenging yet satisfying year at Essar Oil. During the year, we completed our refinery expansion programme, making us the second largest single location refinery in India and one of the most complex refineries in the world. This has opened up new markets for our products and provides flexibility for sourcing of crude. With our optimization programme now nearing completion, we have reached the closure of our major capex programme. With this we have significantly moved up in the refining value chain and are now fully focused on delivering the value of our investments to our stakeholders".

Commenting on the results, Mr Suresh Jain, Chief Financial Officer, Essar Oil said, "With our capex funding requirement coming to an end, ensuing Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) exit, and benefits of higher capacity and complexity will soon be visible in terms of incremental operational cash flows, which will be utilised to deleverage the balance sheet and boost our valuation".

Essar Oil is a fully integrated oil & gas company, with strong presence across the hydrocarbon value chain from exploration & production to refining and oil retail. It has a global portfolio of onshore and offshore oil & gas blocks, with about 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in reserves & resources. Essar Oil now has over 3.60 lakh barrels per stream-day (bpsd) of crude refining capacity that is being expanded to 4.05 lakh bpsd. There are more than 1,600 Essar-branded oil retail outlets in various parts of India.