BPCL surges 2% on fund raising plans

State-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation has gained over 2% at Rs 720 on the BSE after the company plans to raise $2 billion through medium-term notes to finance its capex initiatives. Fitch Ratings has assigned a 'BBB-' rating to the notes.

BPCL has outlined a capex of more than Rs 30,000 crore over the next four years. The largest part of the capex is for the expansion of the Kochi refinery to 15.5mtpa from the current 9.5mtpa at a cost of around Rs 16500 crore.

Last month BPCL officials said the company is raising Rs 4,000 crore for the expansion of its Kochi refinery and to fund its petrochemicals venture through the State Bank of India (SBI).

Fitch Ratings said the high capex is likely to lead to continued negative free cash flows over the next four to five years.

The stock opened at Rs 708 and touched a high of Rs 721. At 10:45 AM, nearly 700,000 shares were traded on both the stock exchanges.