The market breadth in BSE remains healthy with 1,829 shares advancing and 721 shares declining
The sale is key to meeting the government's disinvestment target of Rs 2.1 trillion in the financial year 2020-21. So far, the disinvestment exercise has fetched the government Rs 34,845 crore during the current financial year.
While the Union Cabinet had in November last year approved the sale of the government's entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL, offers seeking expression of interest (EoI), or bids showing interest in buying its stake, were invited only on March 7. The EoI submission deadline was May 2, but on March 31 it was extended up to June 13. On Wednesday, the government said this deadline is further being extended up to July 31.
The government has ordered Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to pay a near-record Rs 13,764 crore as fuel subsidy for the December quarter, a move that will dent the firm's profitability.
Oil prices have declined by more than 60 per cent since January with benchmark crude falling well below $30 per barrel, driven by an acute oil demand decline caused by the coronavirus and a lack of production cuts by OPEC and other oil producing countries.
OVL, the overseas arm of state-run explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, and Oil India Limited agreed in June last year to jointly buy Videocon's 10 per cent interest in the Rovuma Area 1 for $2.475 billion.
This is the first time that petrol sales in the world's third-largest oil importer have risen since the March 25 nationwide lockdown crippled economic activity and sent demand plummeting.
Sun Pharma was by far the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, surging 8.13 per cent, followed by Dr Reddy's at 4.92 per cent.
"Financial bids for Air India disinvestment received by Transaction Adviser. Process now moves to concluding stage," DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted.
The India story got stronger on the global arena with the country expanding its presence on the elite list of Fortune Global 500 companies, as the PSU banking major State Bank of India has become the sixth domestic firm to feature in the league.
Government has begun drawing contingency plans to avert any shortage of domestic cooking gas as a result of go-slow agitation by employees of the country's largest oil company Indian Oil Corp.
The government is keen to close the sale before March 31, 2021, to help meet a record Rs 2.1 lakh crore target which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has set from divestment proceeds in the Budget for 2020-21.
ONGC Videsh Ltd and Oil India Ltd will buy Videocon Industries' 10 per cent stake in a giant Mozambique gas field for $2.475 billion.
India on Tuesday pitched for a stake in vast oil and gas fields as well as LNG terminals in the frozen Artic of Far East Russia as it looked to import more oil from the former Soviet republic as part of a strategy to diversify its energy basket.
The government on Wednesday said there was no proposal to either merge Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum with Oil and Natural Gas Corp or Oil India Ltd with Indian Oil Corporation.
The Union government will gain close to Rs 1.6 lakh crore in additional revenues this fiscal from a record hike in excise duty on petrol and diesel that has pushed the total incidence of taxation on auto fuels to 70 per cent of the price. Late on Tuesday evening, the government hiked excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 13 a litre to mop up gains arising from international oil prices falling to a two-decade low.
While previously selling of the marketing business, possibly to another state-owned firm, was being considered, the government is now mulling on hiving off the pipelines into a separate entity and selling off a majority stake in it.
Sarthak Behuria on Tuesday took over as the chairman of Indian Oil Corp, the country's largest oil refining and marketing company.
Indian Oil Corp is unlikely to bid for a share in six new pipelines being built by Reliance Industries to transport fuel from its refinery to its planned chain of petrol stations.\n\n\n\n
Modelled loosely around the National Highway System of the US, he in 2001 launched the Golden Quadrilateral and the North-South & East-West Corridor projects to build 4/6 lane highways between four top metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata as well as from Srinagar to Kanyakumari and Porbandar to Silchar.
Nifty50 surged 87 points to end at 8,157, highest closing levels since Oct 29, 2015.
The target of mopping up Rs 1.75 lakh crore from divestments of some of the public sector companies, including LIC and BPCL during the current fiscal, is on track and groundwork is being prepared for the goal, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said on Monday. On the COVID-19 pandemic, Subramanian said the impact of the second wave is lesser than that of the first one. In an interactive session, organised by Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the CEA said robust GST collections, over Rs one lakh crore per month for eight months in a row shows that consumption is picking up indicating positive signal for growth.
Referring to Modi, Adityanath and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as 'outsiders', the farmer leader said he has no objection if they become prime ministers after winning polls from Uttarakhand or Gujarat.
In all, 25 Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) posts, 8 MD posts and 2 Chairman posts are lying vacant, according to a written reply by Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises P Radhakrishnan in the Lok Sabha.
Diesel makes up nearly half of fuel demand in Asia's No 3 economy.
The Vedanta group on Wednesday confirmed putting in a preliminary expression of interest (EoI) for buying the government's stake in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL).
The likely solution that appears before the AAP government is to seek for a higher quota of domestic natural gas for Delhi, which would bring down auto and cooking gas prices.
According to sources, Russian energy giant Rosneft or its affiliates, Saudi Aramco and Reliance Industries are in race for BPCL's three refineries - Mumbai, Kochi in Kerala and Bina in Madhya Pradesh - 16,309 petrol pumps, 6,113 LPG distributor agencies and more than a fifth of 256 aviation fuel stations in the country.
A litre of diesel will cost Rs 48.01 compared to Rs 49.31 at present
Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has suggested pricking the ballooning oil bill with everything from a street theatre campaign encouraging lower fuel use, to shutting fuel stations, to increasing imports from Iran.
The department of investment and public asset management is racing against time to launch the LIC IPO, which could become the largest-ever listing on the Indian bourses. This would lead to some delay in the strategic divestment of IDBI Bank.
The benchmark BSE Sensex ended down 2.23 per cent. The Bank Nifty fell 3.59 per cent.
Processes are at an advanced stage for a number of assets of the Centre and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to be monetised. The assets include office space, apartments, factories, land, power transmission assets, sports stadia, gas pipelines, and telecom assets.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The government has merged the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) with the finance ministry to give it a better control over state-owned firms and facilitate its ambitious privatisation programme. Finance ministry will now have six departments while DPE's hereto parent ministry, the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises will now be called the ministry of heavy industries. Previously, the disinvestment ministry - created under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government - was merged with the finance ministry and is now a department under it. Also, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was abolished and administration of foreign investments was given to the finance ministry (FinMin).
Struggling to meet budget targets, the government had in the just concluded fiscal asked cash-rich PSUs to pay second interim dividend as well as undertake share buyback.
The Petroleum Ministry has asked for Rs 26,000 crore (Rs 260 billion) as fuel subsidy for the third quarter of this financial year, but the finance ministry is inclined to provide only Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) cash support.
Changing tracks helps. But, not taking the beaten path isn't always helpful. This is the story of two of India's biggest privatisations - Air India and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL). Nearly two decades after the last privatisation, a landmark divestment concluded this year when the loss-making national carrier Air India was sold to the Tatas.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your stockmarket queries.
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