Indian Oil, HPCL, BPCL gain on report of kerosene subsidy removal

Shares of state-owned oil refiners rallied by up to 5% on BSE in intra-day trade on report that the government will end subsidy on kerosene.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) gained 5% to Rs 388, while Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) surged 4.4% to Rs 401 and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) rose 3% to Rs 499 on BSE in intra-day trade. On comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 159 points or 0.49% at 32,318 at 10:25 am.

The government has asked them to raise prices of subsidised kerosene prices by 0.25 paise every fortnight until the subsidy is eliminated, or until further orders, an Economic Times report suggests.

Earlier this week, the three government-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) have been asked to raise domestic LPG prices by Rs 4 a cylinder every month. Earlier, from July 1, 2016, the government had allowed them to increase the price by Rs 2 a month, a Business Standard reported.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday stated that the administered prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene are set to rise with the calibrated reduction in subsidy.

“Fuel inflation declined for the second month in succession as international prices of LPG fell and price increases moderated in the case of coke, and firewood and chips. Administered prices of LPG and kerosene are set to rise with the calibrated reduction in subsidy. Households appear to have discounted the recent low inflation prints; their three month ahead and one year ahead inflation expectations polled in the June 2017 round of the Reserve Bank’s survey have somewhat hardened,” RBI in 'Third Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2017-18 Resolution of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said.

Indian Oil Corporation

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.(HPCL)

Bharat Petroleum