Calcutta, May 17: The oil stocks have witnessed a major decline in the market today, which has experienced a historic fall in any single trading session in the recent past.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the largest profit making public sector enterprise, has seen a massive decline of about 34 per cent in one week from Rs 840 per share on May 10 to as low as Rs 629 today.

The same decline has been witnessed in other oil stocks like Gail, Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) along with private sector Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).

According to market sources, the common perception of a prospective slowdown in oil sector reforms under the new central government has triggered the fall in oil stocks today.

Gail, the only company that transports gas, witnessed a significant fall at Rs 155 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange today against Rs 226 per share on May 10.

“See, if you go by the fundamentals, even at Rs 226 per share, the Gail scrip is not optimally valued. And today’s price is something which is completely shattering all economic logic as far as this scrip is concerned,” said a senior broker at the National Stock Exchange.

ONGC and Gail, however, are not alone. Other public sector oil companies like, BPCL and HPCL, have experienced almost similar movement in their respective stock prices on the bourses in the last seven days.

One industry insider said that the statement of Sitaram Yechuri, a senior CPI(M) leader, on the abolition of disinvestment commission had a killing impact on the recent melt down of the stock market, particularly in the case of oil stocks.

HPCL stock was quoted at Rs 459.90 per share on May 10, which has come down to Rs 315 per share today. So is the case for BPCL, which has come down to Rs 328 from Rs 469 only a week back.

“It is not that only the PSU oil stocks are reeling under losses because of the uncertainty at the Centre. Reliance Industries, the largest private sector company, too has seen an unabated fall in its share prices over the last seven days. RIL share price has come down from Rs 529 to Rs 403 in the last one week.

Apart from the oil stocks, the other industry that has faced the heat of the current capital market imbroglio is the banking industry which has, on an average, seen a decline of about 25 per cent in the stock value over the past one week.

State Bank of India (SBI), for instance, has dipped from Rs 640 per share to Rs 447 today, while Bank of Baroda (BoB) share price has declined from Rs 241 on May 10 to Rs 139 today.

Analysts say that oil and bank stocks have been very lucrative for the retail investors during the last quarter of 2003-04 when a fresh lease of life was given to the primary market.

“But the steep fall in one week time will have a very far reaching effect so far as the retail investors are concerned,” said a former president of the Calcutta Stock Exchange.

While most of the stocks have taken a severe beating because of the current political uncertainty, the pharma stocks have shown some kind of stability in the face of capital market onslaughts.

Ranbaxy, for instance, has closed at Rs 969 against the closing of Rs 1,027 on May 10. Similarly, Dr Reddy’s Lab saw a marginal fall of Rs 80 today in the stock market.

The share price of Aurobindo Pharma, another leading pharmaceutical company, has declined to Rs 329 today from Rs 421 seven days back.