GAIL jumps on likely relief from subsidy burden

GAIL (India) rose 3.12% to Rs 343.70 at 14:35 IST on BSE on a media report that the oil ministry has decided to exempt the company from sharing subsidy burden with state-run oil retailers.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 195.31 points, or 0.94%, to 20,669.66.

On BSE, 6.55 lakh shares were traded in the counter compared with average volume of 74,940 shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 350 and a low of Rs 340.25 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 395 on 18 January 2013. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 273 on 28 August 2013.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 22 October 2013, sliding 2.09% compared with the Sensex's 2.97% rise. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 0.98% as against Sensex's 3.50% rise.

The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 1268.48 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

According to the report, the oil ministry has decided to exempt GAIL (India) from paying any compensation to public sector oil marketing companies (PSU OMCs) for selling diesel, kerosene and cooking gas below market rates, because GAIL does not make windfall profits when international crude oil and gas prices soar.

PSU OMCs -- BPCL, HPCL and Indian Oil Corporation -- suffer revenue loss on domestic sale of diesel, LPG and kerosene at a controlled price (The government decontrolled pricing of petrol in 2010). The government compensates these state-run oil marketing firms for their under-recoveries through oil bonds. The rest of the cost-price gap is borne by three state-run oil firms -- GAIL (India), ONGC and Oil India.

The report added that while ONGC and Oil India will continue to share oil subsidies, GAIL (India) will exit from the subsidy sharing mechanism because the reasons for it to share subsidy no longer exist. GAIL was asked to contribute because the government had allocated it cheaper APM (administered price mechanism) gas. Earlier, GAIL used to get gas at control rate of about $1.8 per unit. Now, it is forced to import costlier gas for its petrochemical units, report said.

As per the report, GAIL had been demanding exemption from sharing subsidy because it was not an upstream company and unlike them it does not gain from any jump in global oil and gas prices.

GAIL (India) will unveil Q2 results on 25 October 2013. The company's net profit declined 28.7% to Rs 808.17 crore on 15.9% growth in net sales to Rs 12855.64 crore in Q1 June 2013 over Q1 June 2012.

In terms of the decision of the Government of India to share the under recoveries on LPG with PSU OMCs, the company provided provisional discount of Rs 700 crore in Q1 June 2013, which was equal to the amount provided in Q1 June 2012.

GAIL (India) is India's flagship gas transmission and marketing company with global footprints. The Government of India (GoI) holds 57.34% stake in GAIL (India) (as per the shareholding pattern as on 30 September 2013).

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