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Stocks of the three state-owned oil marketing companies may continue to track crude prices and rupee-dollar rates in a truncated trading next week, but are seen mostly in range. Stocks of both Indian Oil Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd ended in the red Friday despite the companies reporting profits for Jul-Sep on the back of last minute reimbursement from the government for their revenue losses on subsidised fuels in Apr-Sep. Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd reported earnings post market hours and its stocks, too, ended down 2%. Domestic stock market will remain closed on Tuesday and Wednesday for Laxmi Pujan and Diwali Balipratipada, respectively.
BPCL reported a net profit of 50.35 bln rupees for Jul-Sep as it accounted for 72.39 bln rupees compensation from the government in the quarter ended September. Indian Oil also swung to profits in Jul-Sep after it accounted for 160.94 bln rupees as subsidy from government. The company's net profit for the quarter ended Sep 30 stood at 96.11 bln rupees. HPCL reported profit of 23.27 bln rupees on account of 66.67 bln rupees received from the government for selling fuels at regulated rates.
The rupee meanwhile declined this week to end at 54.75 to a dollar from 53.81 last week. Rupee depreciation adds to the burden of oil marketing companies making crude relatively costlier as it is priced in dollars. India's basket of crude oil has, however, remained stable at around $106 a barrel.
Stocks of Reliance Industries may remain subdued following another round of allegation against the company and its promoter Mukesh Ambani by anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal Friday alleged that Reliance Industries and Ambani had stashed unaccounted money in Swiss banks. The allegations were refuted by the company in a statement later. However, the allegations caused a sharp fall in the company's shares and may continue to weigh in the near term as Reliance Industries is also facing allegations of overstating costs for its KG-D6 block.
