HPCL to invest in Vishakapatnam refinery

Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd plans to invest 2.5 billion dollars (over Rs 9,961 crore) in expanding its Visakhapatnam refinery capacity to 16 million tons, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

 

HPCL plans to de-bottleneck units at Visakhapatnam refinery to augment the throughput to 10 million tons from current 7.5 million tons, by the end of XIth plan (2012), Minister of state for Petroleum & Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply to a question.

 

The company would then raise the capacity to 16 million tons by the end of XII plan (2017). "HPCL has undertaken a preliminary feasibility study to set up a petrochemical complex at Visakhapatnam in consortium with a partner, after which, the capacity and costs can be firmed up," he said.

 

To a separate question, Patel said public sector fuel retailers Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum lost Rs 26,363 crore during first half of current fiscal on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and PDS kerosene at prices below cost.

 

The companies lost Rs 2,638 crore on petrol, Rs 9,919 crore on diesel, Rs 8,206 crore on PDS kerosene and Rs 5,608 crore on domestic LPG, he said.

 

The retailing firms would be issued bonds for an amount equal to 42.7 per cent of their under-recoveries and one-third of the revenue loss would be borne by upstream companies like ONGC, he said.

 

To another question, Patel said the fuel retailers have planned 3,215 new petrol pumps in the country during 2007-08.

Post Market Commentary

Frontline shares yo-yoed within a narrow range in negative territory on Tuesday due to weak global cues and devoid of any uplifting domestic triggers.

 

"Traders who bought scrips last week when the Nifty fell below 5500 levels are now booking profits. Others are not really participating as the immediate to near term direction is not clear. I expect this lacklustre movement to continue till the F&O expiry on Thursday, after which more clarity will probably emerge," said Suresh Kumar Iyer, technical analyst at Asit C Mehta Investment Interrmediates.

 

Expecting limited movement in index stocks, Iyer advises traders not to go long till Nifty crosses 5790.

 

National Stock Exchange's Nifty today closed 0.59 per cent or 33 points lower at 5,698.15. The index touched an intra-day low of 5655.60 and high of 5743.55.

 

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex ended down 0.62 per cent or 120 points at 19127.73 after dipping to an intra-day low of 19,019.33. The high was 19,211.58.

 

Bharti Airtel (down 3.32%), ICICI Bank (2.18%), Reliance Energy (1.91%), Maruti Suzuki (1.5%), NTPC (1.53%) and Hindalco (1.52%) were the major index losers.

 

Top Sensex gainers were BHEL (up 2.6%), Bajaj Auto (2.54%), State Bank of India (1.38%), Tata Consultancy Services (1.2%) and Wipro (1.12%).

 

Even as action in frontline was minimal, select non-index stocks rallied. Ashok Leyland (up 16.65%), TVS Motor (12.24%), Chennai Petrochemicals (11.16%), Bongaigaon Refineries (8.71%), Indian Oil (5.79%), Orchid Chemicals (5.55%) and Apollo Tyre (4.24) topped the list of BSE gainers.

 

Realty stocks also ended significantly higher, driving the BSE Realty Index up 1.24 per cent, the biggest sectoral gainer of the exchange. Phoenix Mills climbed 4.69 per cent, HDIL was up 3.5 per cent, Indiabulls rose 2.94 per cent and Mahindra Gesco advanced 2.22 per cent.

 

Asian shares also ended in the negative with the Hang Seng and Straits Times down 1.51 per cent and 1.34 per cent respectively. The Nikkei, however, bounced back from early lows and ended half a per cent higher.

 

European indices traded in-line with Asia. London's FTSE lost 0.36 per cent, Germany's DAX shed 0.53 per cent and France's CAC was 0.28 per cent lower.

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Mundra zooms on listing

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 119 points at 19,129 on the back of weak cues from the global markets. The index managed to touch a high of 19,212 before slipping to a low of 19,019 - a swing of 193 points - in early trades.

The Sensex, thereafter, exhibited range-bound movement for the remaining part of the day, and finally ended with a loss of 120 points at 19,128.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,842 stocks traded, 1,476 declined, 1,300 advanced and 66 were unchanged today.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Bharti Airtel plunged 3.3% to Rs 917. ICICI Bank and Reliance Energy dropped around 2% each to Rs 1,132 and Rs 1,755, respectively.

Maruti and NTPC slipped 1.5% each to Rs 938 and Rs 235, respectively.

Hindalco and ACC, also declined 1.5% each to Rs 191 and Rs 1,112, respectively.

Reliance declined over 1% to Rs 2,842. Ranbaxy was also down 1% at Rs 393.

...AND THE MOVERS

BHEL and Bajaj Auto surged 2.5% each to Rs 2,673 and Rs 2,653, respectively.

SBI rallied 1.4% to Rs 2,273. Wipro and TCS advanced over 1% each to Rs 458 and Rs 997, respectively.

DAZZLING DEBUT

Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) was listed at Rs 770, a 75% premium to the issue price of Rs 440. The stock soon zoomed to a high of Rs 1,150. The stock finally ended the day with a gain of 119% at Rs 962.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Debutant Mundra Port topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 1,458 crore followed by Essar Oil (Rs 362 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 242.70 crore), Jindal Steel (Rs 185.40 crore) and Deccan Aviation (Rs 143.70 crore).

Ashok Leyland led the volume chart with trades of around 2.12 crore shares followed by Essar Oil (1.70 crore), Mundra Port (1.48 crore), Ispat Industries (1.35 crore) and IFCI (1.35 crore).

RPL banned again

Amid rumours about US energy giant Chevron exiting Reliance Petroleum, derivatives trading in the company's scrip has been banned.

 

A Chevron spokesperson said from California that it was evaluating its options regarding RPL. The petroleum major owns five per cent stake in RPL, currently valued at about one billion dollar as against a purchase price of 300 million dollars.

 

Meanwhile, RPL shares have been seeing huge turnover in both cash and derivatives segment over the past few days. The derivatives trading was banned soon after it resumed trading on Monday after a previous ban.

 

According to a circular issued by National Stock Exchange, the RPL stock futures had crossed 95 per cent of the market-wide position limit and is currently in the ban period.

 

Late last week, RIL said that it sold 18 crore shares of RPL for over a billion dollar, reducing its stake to 70.99 per cent. This triggered speculations that Chevron could offload its five per cent stake as it might not be able to raise its stake to the desired 29 per cent level.

 

While taking a five per cent stake in RPL last year, Chevron was also given an option to acquire a further 24 per cent. However, speculation hit the market that the US company might acquire a maximum 20 per cent stake now as RIL would not like to dilute its stake to below 51 per cent.

 

"Chevron continues to evaluate options with our ownership in Reliance Petroleum. We will provide specific project updates when definitive decisions are made," the company spokesperson said in a statement.

 

An RPL spokesperson could not be contacted immediately.