Maharatna stock in focus: ONGC shares jump 3%; what's behind the rally?

The share price surged following ONGC Videsh's signing of an addendum with SOCAR, BP, and six other partners for Azerbaijan's ACG Field in the Caspian Sea

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ONGC Shares zooms: Shares of state-owned oil and gas exploration company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), climbed up to 3.17 per cent to hit the day's high of Rs 295.35 on the BSE, during the intra-day deals on Monday. Meanwhile, the benchmark NSE Nifty index jumped 0.52 per cent to a record high of 19,925.80, just nearly 74 points shy of 26,000.

The surge in ONGC share price followed the company’s announcements, wherein it said that ONGC Videsh, together with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), BP, MOL, INPEX, Equinor, ExxonMobil, TPAO, and ITOCHU, signed an addendum to the existing Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for the ACG Field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.

In a statement released on Friday, September 21, ONGC further said that the addendum amends the ACG PSA, enabling the parties to progress the exploration, appraisal, development, and production from the Non-Associated Natural Gas (NAG) reservoirs of the ACG field, effective until the end of the existing ACG PSA in 2049.

That said, crude oil has also been trading higher on Monday, with WTI crude trading 0.44 per cent higher at around USD 91.44 per barrel, and Brent crude at USD 94.91 per barrel, up 0.60 per cent.

Maharatna ONGC is the largest crude oil and natural gas company in India, contributing around 71 per cent to Indian domestic production. The company commands a market capitalisation of Rs 3,70,929.53 crore on the NSE, as of September 23, 2024. ONGC Videsh, a Miniratna Schedule 'A' Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) of the Government of India under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, is the wholly owned subsidiary and overseas arm of ONGC, the flagship national oil company (NOC) of India.

Shares of the Maharatna company have yielded a return of around 43 per cent year-to-date.

At around 12:28 PM, ONGC shares were quoted trading at Rs 294.90, 3.02 per cent higher from the previous close of Rs 286.25 on the NSE. So far, nearly 77.49 lakh equity shares of ONGC worth around Rs 226.50 crore have exchanged hands on the NSE today.

ONGC shares have a 52-week range of Rs 345 - 179.90 on the NSE.