Cairn India advances over 2% as cabinet approves policy for extending oilfield contracts

NEW DELHI: Shares of Cairn India advanced as much as 2.71 per cent in early trade on Thursday after cabinet on Wednesday approved a policy for granting extension to licences of oil and gas fields like that of Cairn India, on payment of an additional 10 per cent profit share.

The policy covers blocks like Rajasthan oilfields of Cairn India which were awarded prior to advent of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) in 1999.

Cairn's exploration license expires in 2019 and the company had been seeking a 10-year extension.

The scrip was trading 1.31 per cent up at Rs 294.90 around 9.30 am (IST). Shares of the company opened at Rs 299 and touched a high and low of Rs 299 and Rs 294.75, respectively, in trade.

Shares of the company hit their fresh 52-week high of Rs 299.50 on March 2, 2017 and 52-week low of Rs 129.90 on June 24, 2016.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2016, the company reported a net profit of Rs 384.42 crore, up 260.35 per cent, against Rs 106.68 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Net sales of the company jumped 1.71 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,144.09 crore for the quarter under review.