Oil & Gas shares gain; Cairn, ONGC up 5%

Shares of oil exploration & production companies such as Cairn India, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India – were trading higher by up to 6% on the bourses after a sharp surge in global crude oil prices.

Among individual stocks, Cairn India surged 6% to Rs 134, followed by ONGC which gained 5% at Rs 209, and Oil India jumped 3.4% to Rs 327 on the BSE. At 10:45 AM, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 1.3% or 304 points at 23,687.

Aban Offshore (up 11% at Rs 167), Jindal Drilling Industries (10% at Rs 118) and Hindustan Oil Exploration (6% at Rs 29.80) were up more than 5% each.

Global crude oil prices rose by more than 5% to climb above $34 a barrel on Wednesday after Iran voiced its support for an initiative led by Russia and Saudi Arabia to freeze production to boost prices, the Reuters report suggests.

Most of these stocks had underperformed the market due to fall in crude oil prices. Thus far in 2016, ONGC & Oil India was down 17% each as compared to 11% decline in the benchmark index till yesterday. Cairn India was down 9% during the period.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC)