India's oil marketing firms extend loss as oil surges more than 25%

Hindustan Petroleum

09/03/2026 04:45

** Stocks of Indian oil marketing companies BPCL BPCL.NS, HPCL HPCL.NS, Indian Oil Corporation  IOC.NS drop 5.9%, 6.9% and 7%, respectively

** Nifty oil and gas index .NIFOILGAS down 2.7%, energy index .NIFTYENR falls 2.1%; benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI loses 2.8%

** .NIFOILGAS sheds 6.6% since the U.S.-Israel first struck Iran vs .NIFTYENR's 2.8% gain, .NSEI's 6.4% decline

** Mideast war drives Brent crude up 26.4% to $117.16/barrel to a near four-year high

** Citi identifies oil marketing firms as most vulnerable, expects marketing losses to widen significantly

** UBS downgrades IOC and BPCL to "neutral" and BPCL to "sell" from "buy"

** Adds, frims are "negatively leveraged" to the crude spike as they sell more diesel and gasoline than they produce

(Reporting by Mridula Kumar in Bengaluru)

((Mridula.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com;))