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ONGC Shares Flat Ahead of Ministerial Meet on Divestmen

  • Shares of ONGC traded flat ahead of a key ministerial meeting that will finalise divestment plans for the public sector oil explorer.An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) will meet later today to discuss ONGC divestment plan, sources told NDTV Profit.The government plans to dilute 5 per cent stake in ONGC through the auction route. The EGoM, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, will decide on the timeline and the base or reserve price for the auction of government stake in ONGC. The floor price for the auction is likely to be at a discount to previous day close, sources said.
  • Earlier this month, the ministerial panel had decided to auction the government stake in ONGC, but did not give any time frame for the same.ONGC stocks traded 0.87 per cent higher at Rs 283.15 at 1135 hours on the Bombay Stock Exchange while the BSE Sensex was up 1.66 per cent at 17,735.The government aims to earn Rs 12,000 crore via ONGC divestment after which government's stake will come down to 69.14 per cent.ONGC stake sale would help the government move towards its ambitious Rs 40,000 crore disinvestment target for the fiscal ending March 31. Till date it has raised only Rs 1,145-crore from PFC disinvestment.Government, whose finances are under pressure, is looking at various options to meet its disinvestment target which has been hit due to adverse market situation.

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