Refining stocks in red

Refining companies are currently ruling the roost among the list of losers today. MRPL, ONGC, Chennai Petro, Oil India, Vedanta, Reliance, Petronet and even HPCL and BPCL. The entire oil and gas sector stocks are in the red.

The reason? There is a news report in Hindustan Times which said that the Govt is considering imposing a Windfall Gains tax; a move to mobilise the much needed resources to offset revenue losses due to recent steps taken to curb inflation.

Yesterday, UK Govt announced a 25% windfall tax on profits of oil and gas companies  to raise around £5 billion to finance one-off grants of £650 to more than 8 million of the poorest households in the UK. This comes on the back of other countries - Italy, Hungary and Spain also imposing similar windfall taxes on companies.