NEW DELHI: Oil gas stocks suffered losses during Thursday's trade amid fears of a windfall tax that the government may impose on them in order to moderate the surging fuel prices.The government may levy a windfall tax on oil producers like ONGC as part of a permanent solution it is working on for moderating the spiralling retail prices of petrol and diesel, PTI reported on Thursday.Rising crude oil prices and declining rupee against the US dollar were other major factors that have hit oil stocks badly.The BSE Oil Gas index was trading 1.64 per cent down at 13,537 around 01:45 pm.
ONGC (down 9.65 per cent) was the top drag on the index.
Shares of Oil India (down 3.82 per cent), Castrol India (down 2.63 per cent), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (down 2.32 per cent), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (down 1.58 per cent), Indraprastha Gas (down 1.39 per cent) and GAIL (India) (down 1.14 per cent) were also among the losers.
Indian Oil Corporation (up 0.81 per cent) and Reliance Industries (up 0.49 per cent) were the two stocks in the oil gas index that were up with mild gains.Benchmark BSE Sensex was up 265 points at 34,610, while the NSE Nifty50 index was up 61 points at 10,491.
In the Sensex index, 20 stocks were up, while 11 were down.
ONGC, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto were the top losers in the Sensex index.