GAIL acquires 5 per cent stake in IGX; stock gains more than 2 per cent

India's leading natural gas company, GAIL India Ltd announced on Wednesday post market session that the company has acquired a 5 per cent stake in Indian Gas Exchange Ltd (IGX). Reacting to the news, on Thursday, its share was up by more than 3 per cent on BSE during the early morning session.  

The company signed a share purchase and shareholders agreement with IGX and Indian Energy Exchange Limited, the promoter & parent company of IGX. The company is already a member of IGX and has now also joined as a shareholder. 

The government of India is promoting gas trading exchanges in order to increase the share of natural gas in the primary energy mix of the country, where natural gas can be supplied or traded through an efficient market-based mechanism. With this partnership, the government will vision for increasing the share of natural gas from 6 per cent to 15 per cent. 

Thus, the partnership between GAIL and IGX is an endeavour towards further development of gas markets. 

GAIL (India) is a natural gas company, which further diversified across the natural gas value chain of trading, transmission, LPG production & transmission, LNG re-gasification, petrochemicals, city gas, E&P, etc. 

At 1.14 pm on Thursday, the stock of GAIL (India) Ltd was trading at Rs 136.85, up by 2.57 per cent against its previous close of Rs 133.55. It has recorded an intraday high of Rs 138.00 and an intraday low of Rs 133.00 on BSE.