Bulls & Bear Hfund of India

The underperformer tag is not leaving  capital goods  companies in a hurry. A combination of sluggish demand, weak execution, low order inflows and continued slowdown in the power sector has made most of these lag the Street’s estimates. Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd ( BHEL ), the country’s largest power equipment manufacturer, led the pack with a 64 per cent  net profit drop in the September quarter — its fifth straight quarter of decline in profits. Slowdown in fresh orders, coupled with high fixed cost, pulled its net profit down to Rs 455 crore, against Rs 1,274 crore in the same period last year. Net sales  during the three-month period also declined, by 15 per cent to Rs 8,819 crore, compared with Rs 10,399 crore in the corresponding period last year. “The decline in profitability has been sharper because of the company’s high fixed cost base,” said Salil Garg, director (Corporate Ratings), India Ratings & Research. BHEL has been grappling with a high level of receivables fro