BPCL, IOC shares fall up to 4% on GAIL stake buy buzz

Shares of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) declined up to 4 per cent today following reports that the state-owned firms may buy 26 per cent stake each in gas utility GAIL India Ltd.

BPCL shares plunged 4.01 per cent to end at Rs 429.50 on BSE. During the day, it dropped 4.33 per cent to Rs 428.05.

Shares of IOC fell by 3.71 per cent to end at Rs 177.80. Intra-day, it lost 4.68 per cent to Rs 176 -- its 52-week low.

GAIL's scrip ended flat at Rs 442.05, up 0.27 per cent.

State-owned IOC and BPCL may buy 26 per cent stake each in GAIL India Ltd, paying the government over Rs 20,000 crore each to become integrated energy firms.

Following Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's February 2017 Budget announcement of creating integrated oil majors, IOC and BPCL had submitted separate proposals to buy the government's 54.89 per cent stake in India's biggest gas marketing and transportation firm, GAIL.

A top source said since the government is not looking at actual merger of oil companies but only transfer of its ownership to a cash rich PSU, the best option would be to split the 54.89 per cent holding in GAIL equally between IOC and BPCL.