Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is trading lower by 2.4% at Rs 259, near to its June 2012 level, after reporting a sharpest year-on-year fall in net profit since December 2008 quarter.
The net profit of the state-owned oil exploration company has declined by 32% in September quarter to Rs 5,897 crore against Rs 8,642 crore in previous year quarter due to higher subsidy outgo. The company’s subsidy outgo has been more than doubled to Rs 12,330 crore in Q2 from Rs 5,713 crore in the same quarter of last fiscal.
Meanwhile, the company's sales fell by 12.5% to Rs 19,853 crore on year-on-year basis due to fall in crude oil production. Crude oil production fell 4.6 per cent to 6.527 million tons while gas ouput was down by a marginal 0.5% to 6.359 billion cubic metres, ONGC said in a statement.
The stock opened at Rs 263 and hit a high of Rs 265 on the BSE. A combined 2.18 million shares have already changed hands on the counter so far against an average around three million shares that were traded daily in past two weeks.
