The rally in HPCL, BPCL, IOC leaves the street divided at extreme ends [Video]

India’s state-run oil refiners, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum )(BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has left the analyst community divided over its prospects going forward. There have been a slew of upgrades, downgrades and price target revisions on all these three names after these three names have rallied between 30% to 40% so far in 2024.

On February 16, Jefferies upgraded BPCL to “buy” from its earlier rating of “Underperform.” It also increased its price target on the refiner sharply to ₹890 from ₹415 earlier, saying that BPCL offers the largest margin of safety among the three companies.

While Jefferies maintained its “hold” and “underperform” rating on Indian Oil and HPCL respectively, it raised its price target on both these stocks to ₹215 from ₹135 and to ₹550 from ₹330 respectively.

Morgan Stanley mentioned that a well-supplied oil market, hardware upgrades and refining golden age will drive the …