Profit booking takes sheen off BPCL

DALAL STREET SPIKES

The share price of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) witnessed profit booking at higher levels on Wednesday after the stock hit a four-month high on Tuesday.

In Wednesday's trading, the BPCL stock was down 1.45 to close at Rs 356.40. According to market sources, there have been fund-based buying at the counter over the past few days.

Aberdeen Asset Management Asia, a foreign institutional investor, bought 5.95 lakh shares of BPCL on Tuesday, taking its total holding in the company to 1.51 crore shares, resulting in the stock gaining 3.6 per cent on Tuesday.

The scrip, which has turned volatile due to alternate bouts of buying and selling in the last few days, gained 6.4 per cent in the last two trading sessions, from a low of Rs 339.65 on September 10, 2004. But the stock failed to sustain the higher levels and it lost 1.7 per cent on Wednesday to Rs 355.50.

Aberdeen's total holding in BPCL, after Tuesday's acquisition, has reached 5.05 per cent of BPCL's equity.