Kolkata: As trading began on Wednesday, Sensex 30 and Nifty 50 witnessed gap down openings. While almost all shares were trading in the red, a few stocks which has deep connection with West Asian countries, especially suffered. One of the stocks was Petronet L&G and the other was L&T. While the former is a major importer of gas, the latter is an infrastructure giant which is executing a number of projects in the Gulf region. Other shares to suffer were those of Mahanagar Gas (down 8.50%), Indraprastha Gas (down 5%) and Gujarat Gas (down 4%).
LNG Petronet, Mahanagar Gas shares plunge
Petronet LNG is a major importer of gas in India. Its shares dived nearly 12% in early trade. Later it recovered a bit and around 12:30 pm the shares were trading at Rs 279.30, down Rs 29.35 or 9.51%. The drop came amid reports that Qatar has stopped production of natural gas following a drone attack by Iran on its facilities. Qatar is the largest supplier of natural gas that are imported in India. Reports said quoting experts that it could lead to a cut of 40% to Indian industry.
Qatar supplies about 40% of the LNG that Indian imports to the tune of about 27 million tonnes. This is primarily used to feed sectors such as power generation, fertiliser production, CNG distribution and piped cooking supply.
At 12:30 MGL shares were trading at Rs 1,103, down Rs 104.30 or 8.64%. Mahanagar Gas is a distributor of gas to key cities and it also imports Liquefied Natural Gas and West Asia is a major supplier to it. It supplies to Mumbai, Thane district’s urban areas and adjoining municipalities apart from the Raigad district in Maharashtra with focus on residential, commercial and industrial consumers.
L&T shares dive
Rising conflict between Iran and the US-Israel combine have created enormous selling pressure in general in the Indian stock market, mirroring US and Asian trends. But the impact was more pronounced in stocks that have a direct business linkage with the West Asian region. Infrastructure giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is such a stock that more than 7% on March 4. The fall pulled down the stock by as much as 12.5% over the past four trading sessions.
L&T shares were marked as the biggest loser in Nifty 50. Close to 12:30 pm the stock was trading at Rs 3,814.10, down Rs 252.60 or 6.21%. The 52-week high and 52-week low of the stock are Rs 4,440.00 and Rs 2,965.30 respectively.
According to reports, global projects contribute a lot to the big order book of L&T. In the nine months ended Dec 31, 2025, L&T won international contracts worth Rs 1,91,084 crore, representing 55% of total orders. In Q3FY26 alone, the firm received Rs 66,848 crore orders 49% of total order inflow.
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