MUMBAI (Commodity Online): Oil & Gas stocks traded weak today as the crude prices fell by nearly 3% in the international market on Thursday, however prices firmed up in the Asian market in the morning trades on Friday.

The weakness in the oil stocks was seen in the sectoral index, which slipped by close to 0.5% at 9988 points in the afternoon trading session today.

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India's second largest oil and gas exploration firm by revenue, Oil India, fell 0.39% to Rs.1210. Cairn India declined 1.15% to Rs.280. While, India's biggest state-run oil exploration firm by revenue Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was marginally low at Rs.1160 down by 0.45%.

Fall in crude oil prices would result in lower realizations from crude sales for oil exploration firms. Light, sweet crude for December 2009 delivery declined $2.12 or 2.66% to $77.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday, 19 November 2009 after Wall Street plunged on worries about corporate earnings.

But, oil gained 46 cents or 0.59% to $77.92 a barrel in the Asian trading on Friday, 20 November 2009.

Additionally, India’s largest private sector oil company, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) also sank on the bourses today. The stock was marginally down by 0.25% at Rs.2077, while Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) fell by over 2% at Rs.69.45 on BSE today.

GAIL (India) Ltd and Aban Offshore Ltd were among the top losers on the oil & gas index. GAIL tanked by close to 2% at Rs.379, while Aban Offshore Ltd was trading at Rs.1333 down by over 1%.