This is a year of many unpleasant firsts. In February, shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) fell below ₹100 apiece for the first time since 2005. Now, the ONGC stock trades at around ₹80.
“Continuous divestment by way of ETFs in the last 2-3 years has hurt ONGC’s stock performance,” said a report by ICICI Securities Ltd on 2 September.
Agreed, the substantial underperformance renders valuations appealing. “But valuations were attractive six months ago as well and that’s clearly not exciting investors,” said Probal Sen, senior vice-president, Centrum Broking Ltd.
