Shares of Cairn India fell by nearly 2% in morning trade on the BSE today after the government referred Vedanta Resources $9.6 billion buyout of the Indian firm to a ministerial panel, thus delaying the buyout.
Hit by the delay, the stock made a weak opening on the Bombay Stock Exchange and within minutes slipped by 1.93% to touch an early low of Rs 344.30.
The scrip took a beating on the National Stock Exchange as well, where it went down by 1.81% to a low of Rs 344.20.
On the volume front, over 16 lakh shares of the company were traded on the bourses within the first hour of trade.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs yesterday referred Vedanta Resources $9.6 billion buyout of Cairn India to a ministerial panel.
The move followed differences in the Cabinet panel on whether the London-listed mining group with no experience in oil should be given unconditional approval for buying a company that owns the nation's largest onland oil fields or after attaching reasonable conditions.
UK's Cairn Energy Plc, which is selling a majority stake in its Indian unit, and Vedanta have set April 15 as the deadline for the conclusion of the transaction and a government decision is unlikely before that.
Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark index Sensex was trading at 19,562.05, down by 50.15 points, at 1022 hrs today.
