BPCL, IOC face 200-DMA hurdle despite Brent Crude slipping to 7-mth low

Barring Indian Oil Corp, which gained over 4%, the other two oil marketing companies, BPCL and HPCL, trade with negative returns on YTD basis and have immensely underperformed benchmark indices

After an incredible rally in March that saw Brent Crude Oil hitting a decade high of $139 a barrel, the commodity has tanked to a seven-month low last week to $87.72 per barrel.

Until this June, Brent Crude made several attempts to cross the $125 per barrel resistance level after there was strong profit booking once the commodity hit a decade high level. The bulls thereafter lost grip on the crude benchmark as it failed to cross this milestone and tumbled nearly 30 per cent. Oil prices ever since traded with a negative bias.

Back home, shares of India’s state-owned fuel retailers