ONGC, the state-run oil and gas exploration major, gained a whopping Rs 6,131.49 crore, or 12.11%, in market capitalisation in the last month at Rs 56,744.88 crore.

Topping the list of companies in terms of market capitalisation (m-cap), ONGC's market cap is  Rs 19,259.06 crore higher  than that of Reliance Industries, which is placed at No 2 with a m-cap of Rs 37,485.82 crore.

The ONGC stock touched its new 52-week high of Rs 409.70 on Friday, before settling at Rs 397.95. Interestingly, the daily volumes on the  counter have multiplied - from less than 20,000 shares to over 1.45 lakh shares in the last one month.

Meanwhile, investors' focus  has been conspicuously shifting from the New Economy to Old Economy stocks of late. ONGC,  being a m-cap topper, witnessed hectic activity in recent sessions.

ONGC's m-cap is now more than the combined m-cap of top 5 IT companies like Wipro (Rs 21,963.18 crore), Infosys Technologies (Rs 19,820.64 crore), Satyam Computer (Rs 5,603.71 crore), HCL Technologies (Rs 4,083.72 crore) and i-flex Solutions (Rs 3,160.35 crore).

The ONGC stock has also gained ground on a couple of positive developments in the company.

On Thursday, the company announced that it would commence retailing automotive fuels from its own petrol stations by the end of 2003. The company has already secured a licence from the Government of India to set up 600 petrol pumps in four states including Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The first petrol pump would come up in Mangalore, Karnataka, within a couple of months.

On the same day, ONGC received its first consignment of 80,000 metric tonnes of Nile Blend crude from the Greater Nile Oil Project in Sudan at the company's refinery in Mangalore. ONGC had  recently acquired a substantial equity stake in the Sudanese oil exploration company.

Meanwhile, according to reports earlier this month, ONGC has found 600-700 billion cubic feet of natural gas reserves in the western state of Rajasthan. The lone well that the company has drilled so far has yielded 3.5 million cubic metres (125 million cubic feet) of gas per day. The company is delineating the area and another well would be drilled this year to establish the exact recoverable reserves. While the company has not termed this development as a major discovery yet, players expect an announcement in this regard soon.

Last month, ONGC announced the discovery of substantial oil reserves west of the Vasai gas field, off the Bombay coast. The Vasai West find is estimated to contain 240 million barrels of in-place oil plus oil-equivalent gas. The company also reported another find at Laipling-gaon in the northeastern state of Assam. Even by preliminary estimates, 100 million barrels of in-place oil plus oil-equivalent of gas are believed to be  in the Laipling-gaon find.

With this, ONGC has made six recent new discoveries - Vasai West (oil and gas) on the western offshore, GS-49 (gas) and GS-KW (oil and gas) on the Krishna Godavari offshore, Chinnewala Tibba (gas) in Rajasthan, Laipling-gaon (oil and gas) and Banamali (oil) both in Assam. ONGC produces 5,20,000 barrels per day of crude oil.

Meanwhile, ONGC's crude production in 2002-03 crossed the 26-million-tonne mark, an increase of 1.3 million tonnes over the production in 2001-02. The increase came mainly from ONGC's prime asset, the Bombay High field, following re-development projects launched in 2001.

The ONGC scrip has also received a boost in  recent sessions following the hopes of a bumper dividend and impressive Q4 and FY 2002-03 results. Already, ONGC has declared an interim dividend of Rs 17 per share. Players expect the full dividend for FY 2002-03 to be around Rs 23-24 per share.

ONGC's financial performance has been impressive of late. For the third quarter ended 31 December 2002, it recorded a 84% rise in net profit to Rs 2,593.47 crore (Rs 1,409.66 crore) on a 35% increase in net sales to Rs 7,604.99 crore (Rs 5,640.58 crore).

As on 31 March 2003, the Government of India held 84.11% equity stake in ONGC, while the public and institutions held 1.2% and 2.62% respectively.