This PSU declares 135% dividend; share hits 4-month high

Shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) rose nearly 3% to hit an over four-month high at ₹143.20 in intraday trade on Tuesday, a day after the state-owned oil and gas company announced an interim dividend for the company’s shareholders. The PSU, which has consistently declared dividends for the last 5 years, had announced a dividend of 210% amounting to ₹10.5 per share for the year ending March 2022. 

Cheering the news, ONGC share price opened a tad higher at ₹139.85, against the previous closing price of ₹139.20 on the BSE. During the session, the stock gained as much as 2.94% to hit an intraday high of ₹143.3, while market capitalisation surged to ₹1.79 lakh crore. There was a surge in buying activities as 11 lakh shares changed hands over the counter on the BSE against the two-week average volume of 6.33 lakh stocks.

The share price of the public sector oil and gas major currently trades 27% lower than its 52-week high of ₹194.60 touched on March 8, 2022. It touched a 52-week low of ₹119.80 on July 6, 2022. The energy heavyweight has fallen 10% in the last one year, while it delivered flat returns in the calendar year 2022. In the last six months, the stock has fallen 7.5%, while it surged over 11% in a month.

ONGC shares were in focus today after the company announced its second quarter earnings report late last night. The board of the company also approved an interim dividend of 135%, i.e. ₹6.75 on each equity share of ₹5. The total payout on this account will be ₹8,492 crore.

“The Record date for distribution of dividend has been fixed for November 22, 2022 which has been intimated to the stock exchanges,” the PSU said in an exchange filing.

For the July-September quarter of the current fiscal, ONGC reported a 30.1% decline in net profit at ₹12,826 crore as against ₹18,348 crore in the same period last year. The profit was impacted after the government imposed a windfall tax to take away gains arising from the rise in international crude prices.

However, the gross revenue jumped 57.4% to 38,321 crore in Q2 FY23, from 24,353 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

During the quarter under review, gross oil realisation jumped 37.7% to $95.5 per barrel, while net of windfall tax realisation stood at $72.2 a barrel.

As per the company, oil and gas production fell 2% to 5.36 million tonne during the September quarter of 2022, from 5.47 million tonne output in the year-ago period. Similarly, gas production dropped marginally to 5.35 billion cubic meters as against 5.46 bcm output in July-September 2021.