Oil marketing companies shares gain on good earnings
BPCL and HPCL gained as much as 4.25% and 5.71% as they reported better than expected results for the March quarter
Mumbai : Oil marketing companies (OMCs) namely Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) gained as much as 4.25% and 5.71% as they reported better than expected results for the quarter-ending March 2015.
It was on the back of timely compensation by the government towards under-recoveries (loss on selling fuel at below cost), lower interest costs as well as higher other income (largely driven by forex gains) that aided net profit in the quarter.
BPCL’s net profit at ₹ 2,853 crore in the quarter was about 48% higher than Bloomberg’s consensus estimate of ₹ 1,932 crore. Gross refining margins (GRMs), again were better than expected at $7 per barrel in the quarter, which incidentally is the highest quarterly GRM in FY15 for the company. Net sales fell 31.4% year-on-year to ₹ 51,304 crore on account of the fall in crude oil prices.
HPCL’s net profit grew 39% higher at ₹ 2,162 crore against an estimate of ₹ 1,552 crore. Net sales were down 30.5% to ₹ 44,550 crore over the year-ago quarter. Lower crude oil prices impacted topline.
As on 9.44am, shares of both companies were trading up — BPCL shares were up by 3.57% to ₹ 846.40 and HPCL’s were trading up by 5.24% to ₹ 670.20.
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