Ignoring the bearish trend in the broader market, stocks of Cairn India jumped by over 1.5 per cent on the bourses today after the company said it has struck natural gas reserves in the very first well it drilled in the offshore Mannar Basin of Sri Lanka.

Cairn had drilled the CLPL-Dorado-91H/1z well in early August and natural gas was discovered a few days ago.

CLPL-Dorado-91H/1z is the first well to be drilled in Sri Lanka in 30 years and the first well to have encountered hydrocarbons in the country.

Reacting to the development, shares of Cairn India jumped by over 1.53 per cent on the BSE and more than 1.59 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to a high of Rs 277 and Rs 276.85, respectively.

However, the stock saw some of the initial gains pared during the course of morning trade and was being quoted at Rs 273.50 on the BSE, up 0.26 per cent, and at Rs 72.60 on the NSE, up 0.04 per cent, at 11.48 am.

The uptrend in the counter assumes significance as the broader market was in the red, with the 30-share Sensex down 322.87 points at 16,130.89 and the wide-based Nifty trading lower by 102.90 points at 4,840.35.

Cairn had in 2004 made India’s biggest oil discovery in more than two decades in Rajasthan. It is currently producing 125,000 barrels of oil per day from the Mangala oilfield in Rajasthan.

The Sri Lanka block is the only overseas property Cairn India that currently has. It has 10 oil and gas blocks in India.

Cairn India is the target of a $9-billion takeover by London-listed mining group Vedanta Resources. Vedanta is buying 40 per cent of UK-based Cairn Energy Plc’s stake in Cairn India.

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