Bajaj Auto, the homegrown auto maker, on Tuesday deferred a board meeting called to discuss a share buyback, sending its shares lower.

Market participants are wondering why the meeting was called in the first place.

In a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges, the company said while the board meeting commenced at 11 am and concluded at 2.30 pm, its board “decided that further deliberations are required in order to take a decision on the proposal of buyback, and accordingly deferred the matter’’.

The company has not yet announced a fresh date for the meeting though it is expected to do so over the next few days.

If passed, the buyback would have been the first by the firm in its history. It was on June 9, that the company had announced that its board will meet to consider the proposal.

The stock markets reacted negatively to the development and the Bajaj Auto scrip plunged by 7.13 per cent in intra-day trade to touch a low of Rs 3,603.75. It later settled at Rs 3,684.40 — a fall of 5.06 per cent over the last close.

While Bajaj Auto said more deliberations were needed, investors wondered why the meeting was called in the first place if more deliberations are needed. Bajaj Auto is a strong dividend-paying company and it had surplus cash and cash equivalents of Rs 19,090 crore during the quarter ended March 31.