 "Oil & Gas index surges nearly 3%; HPCL, Oil India, BPCL, IOC rally up to 6%")
Oil & Gas index movement today
Shares of refinery companies, including upstream and downstream, are in demand, with the BSE Oil & Gas index surging nearly 3 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday’s intra-day trade on a healthy business outlook.
At 12:41 PM, the BSE Oil & Gas index was up 2.5 per cent, as compared to a 0.6 per cent rise in the BSE Sensex. The oil & gas index rallied nearly 3 per cent to 28,668.49 in an intra-day deal. The index had hit a 52-week high of 29,249.06 on November 12, 2025.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) from the oil marketing companies (OMCs) have rallied between 3 per cent and 6 per cent. Oil India, Reliance Industries, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Indraprastha Gas, and Petronet LNG from the index were up in the range of 1 per cent to 4 per cent.
Of these, HPCL (up 6 per cent to ₹495.40) and BPCL (up 4 per cent at ₹384.75) have hit their respective 52-week highs in intra-day trade. These stocks have surpassed their previous highs touched in November 2025. READ STOCK MARKET UPDATES TODAY LIVE
What’s driving oil & gas stocks?
Crude oil prices retreated from the day’s highs in a volatile session. Prices jumped early on geopolitical tensions but failed to hold gains after the release of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting minutes. Fed officials indicated that interest-rate cuts in 2026 are unlikely to be aggressive and will remain largely data-dependent, while also highlighting concerns over inflation and labor market conditions.
Diminishing expectations of rate cuts capped upside in oil prices. Rahul Kalantri, VP Commodities, Mehta Equities, expect crude oil prices to remain volatile in today’s session.
Meanwhile, OMC’s are well positioned to benefit from a fall in crude prices, improvement in refining margins, fuel consumption growth and petchem demand growth in India.
The Oil & Gas index has reaffirmed its breakout validity with a decisive rebound from the prior breakout retest zone and forming a higher-high-low pattern in the vicinity of the rising channel, according to analysts at ICICI Securities. ALSO READ | Nifty climbs 0.8%, Sensex adds 600 pts on CY25 finale: triggers explained
Within this space, IOC structure highlights a recurring breakout cycle; each consolidation phase has triggered a strong trend expansion. The brokerage firm expects the stock to resume its uptrend and move towards the target of ₹190 being in the vicinity of its all-time high levels.
Meanwhile, HPCL continues to trade in a strong long-term uptrend, having resumed its bullish structure after a corrective phase earlier. The stock has posted higher highs and higher lows and is currently undergoing a healthy consolidation near the upper end of the range, indicating profit booking rather than a trend reversal, a technical analyst at Choice Equity Broking said.
The stock remains a buy, with potential for a fresh upside move toward ₹525, followed by ₹550, which aligns with prior swing projections. On the downside, dips toward ₹460 can be used for accumulation, while ₹442 continues to act as a major structural support for the broader trend, the brokerage firm said.
A potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine could lead to easing of sanctions on Russia; this has added to oversupply concerns and led to a decline in Brent to $60/bbl. Analysts at JM Financial Institutional Securities believe Brent may remain subdued $65/bbl in the near term till the US November 2026 mid-term elections as Saudi Arabia is obliging to the US President’s near-term request for low oil price, but it is likely to stabilise $70/bbl in the medium term, as otherwise it could hurt US shale capex and lead to jump in Saudi Arabia’s fiscal deficit. ALSO READ | Steel stocks up 2nd straight day, rally up to 5%; SAIL, JSL hit 52-wk highs
Subdued crude price could continue to be positive for OMCs’ marketing margin in the near term; however, any significant hike in excise duty on auto-fuel poses a key risk, and OMCs’ valuations are 5-15 per cent above the historical average.
Muted crude price is likely to cap ONGC/Oil India’s near-term crude realisation. However, the brokerage firm said they like Oil India from a medium-term perspective as it could be a 15 per cent earnings-compounding story over the next 2-3 years as its likely to see strong 20-25 per cent cumulative oil and gas production growth in the next 2-3 years and is also likely to benefit from expansion of the Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) refinery from 3mmtpa to 9mmtpa, while it has limited downside as the stock price is discounting $55/bbl net crude realisation.
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