IOCL gains as LIC hikes stake

Indian Oil Corporation gained 3.1% to Rs 407 at 10:49 IST on BSE after Life Insurance Corporation of India acquired a huge quantity of shares in the recently completed divestment of Government of India's stake in the company.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 49.95 points or 0.19% at 26,082.33

On BSE, so far 1.96 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 2.26 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 408.50 and a low of Rs 387.35 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 465.40 on 24 July 2015. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 307 on 13 February 2015.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 25 August 2015, sliding 13.68% compared with 7.4% fall in the Sensex. The stock, however, outperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 13.27% as against Sensex's 5.83% decline.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 2427.95 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

A filing with the stock exchanges showed that India's biggest domestic institutional investor, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), bought 20.87 crore shares or 8.59% stake in Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) in the recently completed divestment of Government of India's stake in the company. This means that LIC bought majority of the shares that were on offer. The Government of India, the principle shareholder of IOCL, sold 24.27 crore shares aggregating to a 10% stake in IOCL through the stock exchanges mechanism on 24 August 2015. With the acquisition of the large quantum of shares in the Offer for Sale for divestment of the Government of India's stake in IOCL, LIC's stake in IOCL has risen to 11.11% from 2.52% earlier.

Meanwhile, IOCL after market hours yesterday, 25 August 2015, announced that subsequent to signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Government of India (GoI) and Government of Nepal on 24 August 2015, IOCL and Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) have signed an MoU for construction of 1.3 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA) capacity Raxaul-Amlekhgunj petroleum product pipeline along with some works at Amlekhganj Petroleum Depot of NOC. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 275 crore and the completion period is 30 months after receipt of statutory clearances. This pipeline will ensure long term supply of petroleum products to Nepal from IOCL as well as stability of supplies from India to Nepal, which will benefit both the countries, IOCL said.

IOCL's net profit surged 155.1% to Rs 6435.70 crore on 19.7% decline in total income to Rs 102141.77 crore in Q1 June 2015 over Q1 June 2014.

IOCL is India's flagship national oil company, with business interests that straddle the entire hydrocarbon value chain - from refining, pipeline transportation and marketing of petroleum products to exploration & production of crude oil & gas as well as marketing of natural gas and petrochemicals.

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