IOC, HPCL, BPC shares fall up to 5% on historic OPEC production cut

Stocks of oil marketing companies (OMCs), including IOC, HPCL and BPCL, fell between 2.2% and 4.9% on Thursday, a day after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to cut production after a gap of eight years.

The BSE Oil and Gas index closed at 11,881.25, down 83.07 points or 0.69%, while the Sensex closed down 92.89 points, or 0.35%.

HPCL registered its biggest single-day fall after Aug 23 and closed at Rs 446.90, down 4.9%. The scrip of another public sector undertaking, BPCL, hit two-month low and closed at Rs 629.90, down 2.20%.

The OMC stocks, which hit their record highs in October-November, have yielded decent returns to investors in so far this year. The stock of HPCL gained the most at 61%. BPCL and IOC reported gain of 41% and 39%, respectively. The Sensex, on the other hand, went up 1.7% during the same period.

Brent crude prices went up by over 12% after the news came in on Wednesday, hitting the highest level since the past one month. Brent closed at $46.38 per barrel on November 29. But after the announcement, the price kept rising and was at $52.4 per barrel as on 4:30 pm.

Prices of Brent crude rose 86% since mid-Jan this year, when it hit the bottom at $27.88 per barrel.

OPEC plans to cut production by1.2 million barrels per day, aiming to raise the global price of crude oil. Currently, the OPEC produces 33.7 million barrels per day.

Strategists at Morgan Stanley, led by Adam Longson, said, “This is not the only OPEC agreement to limit production in this downturn, and thus scepticism on finalization is warranted.”

Oil exploring companies, on the other hand, registered profits on Thursday. Stocks prices shoot up between

0.4% and 2.8% for companies such as GAIL, ONGC, Reliance and OIL.

In 2014, the global oil market plummeted massively, and prices plunged from $100 per barrel down to $40.

Asia being the OPEC’s biggest customer region is likely to get impacted the most because of the artificial

supply cut that will evidently hike prices.

In that case, importers may explore options to seek more supplies from outside OPEC.OPEC is an inter-governmental organisation of 14 oil exporting nations, of which Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela are the founding members.

Indian Oil Corporation

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.(HPCL)

Bharat Petroleum