D-Street Buzz: BSE Oil & Gas up over 2 percent led by Petronet LNG, IGL; BPCL, ONGC gain 3% each

The Indian stock market continues trading on a handsome note with Sensex up 495.93 points or 1.47 percent at 34321.46, and the Nifty jumped 148.30 points or 1.49 percent at 10127.40 as bulls held tight control over Dalal Street.

Nifty Metal was up over a percent led by Hindalco Industries, Vedanta, SAIL, Welspun Corp, Hindustan Copper and Jindal Steel & Power.

India VIX is down 0.6 percent and is trading at 29.94 level.

Oil & gas stocks are also buzzing in the afternoon session with the top gainers in NSE being ONGC and BPCL which added 2-3 percent followed by HPCL, Indian Oil Corporation and Tata Power Company among others.

BSE Oil & Gas jumped over 2 percent led by Petronet LNG, Indraprastha Gas, IOC, ONGC and Gujarat State Petronet.

Oil rose on Wednesday, with Brent above USD 40 for the first time since March, as optimism mounted that major producers will extend output cuts and a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic will spur fuel demand.

Brent crude futures for August were up 78 cents, or 2 percent, at USD 40.35 a barrel, by 06:36 GMT. The contract climbed to as high as USD 40.53, the highest since March 6, after gaining 3.3 percent on Tuesday, a Reuters report said.

US crude oil has rallied sharply in last few days and it is likely that market players may hold on to the gains ahead of OPEC meeting. However, we recommend some caution as inventory report may not have much to offer. API report has already fueled expectations of a decline in US crude stocks, said Ravindra Rao, VP- Head Commodity Research at Kotak Securities.

Apart from stocks, focus will be on US crude production and refining demand. Production has been falling but at a slow pace. For the day, price may trade higher ahead of inventory report.