ONGC shares reverse early losses; settle in green on bourses

Reversing early losses, shares of state-owned oil explorer ONGC today ended with gains in an overall strong market even as the company reported 19.5 per cent drop in net profit for the quarter ended March 2015.
After falling 4.51 per cent to Rs 313.30 in intra-day trade at the BSE, shares of the company ended 0.56 per cent higher at Rs 329.95.
On the NSE, it closed at Rs 329.85, up 0.59 per cent, from its previous close.
ONGC yesterday reported 19.5 per cent drop in net profit at Rs 3,935 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, mainly due to higher operating cost and write-off on dry wells drilled.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp's net profit in January-March was lower than Rs 4,889 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal, 2013-14, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Dinesh K Sarraf had said.
The company wrote off Rs 291 crore of exploration expenses for drilling wells that did not result in any discovery.
For the full 2014-15 fiscal, the company wrote off about Rs 10,000 crore, of which Rs 2,700 crore was on account of dry wells, Sarraf said.
In the broader market, the benchmark BSE Sensex today closed 321.73 points up at 27,828.44.