ONGC will, however, not pay an interim dividend for now as it is left with almost no surplus after accounting for its capital expenditure, sources with knowledge of the development said. ONGC shares closed almost flat at Rs 148.65 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today.

Department of Investment and Public Asset Management has written a letter to ONGC stating that a listing would also help unlock value in the unit by improving its corporate governance and efficiency.

The broader NSE Nifty closed 1.01 percent or 106 points lower at 10,430.35, while the benchmark BSE Sensex fell 0.88 percent or 306 points to 34,344.91. Both the indexes fell over 1 percent in the last hour of trading.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) recorded a net profit of Rs 5,015 crore in quarter ending December 31, registering 15.2 per cent jump on QoQ basis. The net profit for this quarter is higher than Rs 4,352.33 crore in the same period a year ago.

ONGC will pay Rs 473.97 per share for 77.8 crore shares of the government in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), the company said in a stock exchange filing.

The Sensex erased gains during the last hour of trade and closed 118 points higher at 33,478 level in Tuesday's trade. The Nifty too rose 28.15 points or 0.27 percent with Asian markets trading in green tracking overnight gains in US markets on strong economic data. Here are the key highlights, which affected the market today.

Metal stocks a drag on Sensex, Nifty. BSE metal index down 2.43 percent at 13,927 level; Hindalco, Coal India and Hindustan Zinc top losers.

Market breadth was positive with 1,485 stocks closing higher against 1,230 ending in the red on the BSE. 141 stocks remained unchanged.

Energy firms gained on higher crude prices as sentiment was upbeat in domestic and global energy stocks with Brent crude hitting its highest level since July 2015 after Saudi Arabia agreed to support the extension of a global oil production cut agreement. While Reliance Industries gained over 1 percent, the ONGC stock rose up to 4 per cent post its Q2 earnings.

Shares of Axis Bank declined 0.44 per cent on BSE per cent even as the Reserve Bank has allowed the private lender  to raise foreign shareholding to up to 62 per cent, from the earlier limit of 49 per cent.