Oil stocks dip on fears of partial rollback in petrol rates

IOC ended down 2.05%, HPCL down 1.68%

Shares of state-owned oil marketing companies, including IOC, settled in the red today amid speculations that the petrol price hike announced this week may be partially rolled back.

On the BSE, IOC ended the day at Rs 265.35, down 2.05%, while Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) was down 1.68% at Rs 300.50.

However, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) managed to end in the green following its quarterly results and was up 0.72% at Rs 731.10.

BPCL has reported over four-fold jump in net profit at Rs 3,962.83 crore for the fourth quarter ended March, 2012 and declared a 1:1 bonus.

HPCL and IOC had lost over 1% yesterday.

Analysts said there was fresh selling in these stocks on speculations that the recent petrol price hike may be partially rolled back and an EGoM meet to decide upon raising of diesel, kerosene and LPG price may not happen today.

"Shares of oil companies fell on reports that Empowered group of ministers meeting to decide on review of prices of kerosene, diesel and LPG may not happen today," Fairwealth Securities Head (Equity) Sharmila Joshi said.

Earlier this week, petrol prices were hiked by Rs 7.54 per litre, the steepest hike in petrol price ever.

The increase was of Rs 5 per litre.

In the broader market, the 30-share Sensex ended 4.48 points lower at 16,217.82.