Up To Rs. 4.6/Litre Hike In Petrol, Diesel Prices Likely, Says Brokerage

Even as petrol and diesel prices are at record highs, a brokerage today warned of a further hike of up to Rs 4.6 per litre in the prices of auto fuels. Petrol and diesel prices, which are revised on a daily basis from 6 am, were not raised for three weeks before Karnataka elections. Because of this, oil marketing companies (OMCs) now need to raise petrol prices by Rs 4.6 or 6.2 per cent and diesel rates by Rs 3.8 or 5.8 per cent, Kotak Institutional Equities said in a report.

"OMCs have started increasing retail prices now, but the ask-rate remains high at Rs 4-5/litre to earn normative margins," said Kotak Institutional Equities. "Our computation suggests that downstream OMCs are required to increase retail prices of diesel by a steep Rs 3.5-4/litre and gasoline (petrol) by Rs4-4.55/litre in the coming weeks to earn normative gross marketing margins of Rs 2.7/litre, assuming global price of diesel and gasoline and Rupee-US Dollar exchange rate remain stable hereon," the report added.