HPCL, BPCL, IOCL trade firm after government cuts excise duty on fuels

HPCL, BPCL and IOCL have gained between 3% and 4%, extending their past two day's gain on the BSE

Shares of all three state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) were trading higher by up to 4% on BSE in early morning trade after the government cut the excise duty on both branded and unbranded petrol and diesel by Rs 2 a litre from Wednesday.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) have gained between 3% and 4%, extending their gains for the past 2 days on the BSE.

At 9:43 am, these three stocks were trading higher in the range of 1% to 3%, as compared to 0.18% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Over the past few weeks, share prices of IOCL, HPCL and BPCL have declined by more than 10% as against less than 1% fall in the benchmark index.

“The decline in share prices reflects rising concerns after some media reports of re-introduction of subsidy burden, rise in crude oil prices, decline in high speed diesel or HSD and MS cracks post Hurricane Harvey in the US and global rating agency Moody’s statement that borrowings of oil marketing companies will increase with dividend payment and capital expenditure in the current financial year,” analyst Nirmal Bang said in recent report on oil & gas sector.

Company	31/08/2017	28/09/2017	% chg	LTP	% chg
HPCL	487.95	415.10	-14.93	444.60	7.11
BPCL	528.55	464.15	-12.18	483.45	4.16
IOCL	453.95	397.30	-12.48	411.50	3.57
Sensex	31730.49	31497.38	-0.73	31558.18	0.19
LTP : Last traded price on BSE in Rs at 09:51 AM