State-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs), including Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and Indian Oil are trading at their 52-week lows after reducing the price of petrol for the first time in 33 months by Rs 1.85 a litre to pass on to the consumer the benefit of a dip in the global crude oil price in the first fortnight of November.
These three companies had reported a loss of Rs 14,079 crore during the quarter ended September 2011, as compared to a net profit of Rs 9,526 crore in year ago on selling fuel at subsidised rates and that too as the Indian rupee weakened during the quarter.
Among individual stocks,Hindustan Petroleum is down 4% at Rs 290, followed by Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil (down 3%) each on the Bombay Stock Exchange.