OMCs to register weak Q2 on fall in marketing margins

State-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) – IOC, BPCL and HPCL– are seen to have posted weaker earnings in the second quarter of the current financial year, due to a sharp fall in the marketing margins of petrol and diesel, after the rise in benchmark crude oil prices. However, analysts believe that a sequential improvement in the refining margins can provide some cushion for these downstream oil companies in the July-September quarter.

Although the OMCs may still have partly recouped the losses reported in the last financial year in the first half of FY24, the prospects are not bright for the second half of the current year.