Reliance Industries, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, HPCL shares: Oil refiners gain as crude oil slides

Shares of oil refining companies such as Reliance Industries, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) were trading higher in the range of 2% and 4% on Friday, March 20, after crude oil prices stabilised in international markets after witnessing wild swings in the previous session.

Shares of Reliance Industries, the operator of world's largest refining complex in Jamnagar, rose as much as 3.26% to hit an intraday high of ₹1,430 on the National Stock Exchange.

Shares of Indian Oil climbed as much as 3.78% to hit high of ₹148, Bharat Petroleum shares advanced 3.44% to hit high of ₹295 and Hindustan Petroleum shares gained 6.2% to hit an intraday high of ₹345.35.

Lower crude oil prices augur well for oil refiners as it helps them in maintaining higher gross refining margin, a key measure of profitability on an oil refiner.

Sliding crude prices

Crude oil prices in the global market cooled to $105 per barrel (bbl) on Friday after surging to $119 per barrel in the previous session as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official statement said that the United States was not involved in the recent attacks on Iran’s key energy resources.

In a major blow to the global crude market, Israel on Wednesday attacked Iran's main energy source, South Pars gas field and its infrastructure at the nearby Asaluyeh processing hub, prompting Iranian attacks on energy targets across the Middle East, news agency Reuters reported.

The strikes are the biggest escalation yet in the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began nearly three weeks ago, sending global oil ‌and gas prices soaring and stoking fears about the impact on the global economy.

The attacks intensified the geopolitical situation in West Asia as the strike were carried out on key energy resources, a move which led to Iran retaliating with further missile strikes on other energy infrastructure in Qatar.

In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Donald Trump also clarified that the United States was not aware of this attack, and neither did Iran know that the US was not involved in the attacks. He called for no more attacks to be made from Israel’s side on key energy resources in the region.

However, local media reported that in Netanyahu’s open statement, the leader said, “We are continuing to crush these capabilities. We will crush them to dust, to ashes.” A statement which also shows the conflict is still in effect.

Back home, as of 11:36 am, shares of Reliance Industries, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum were trading higher in range of 2% and 4%, outperforming the NIFTY50 index which was up 1.4%.