The company made the announcement during market hours today, 19 January 2009.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 20.19 points, or 0.22%, to 9303.33.

On BSE, 2.15 lakh shares were traded in the counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 10.72 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 159.20 and a low of Rs 154.45 so far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 342.50 on 21 May 2008 and a 52-week low of Rs 88.15 on 27 October 2008.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 16 January 2009, rising 8.50% as compared to the Sensex's 6.55% fall. It had, however, outperformed the market in the past one quarter, rising 0.10% as compared to the Sensex's fall of 11.89%.

The large-cap private sector oil explorer has an equity capital of Rs 1896.67 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The current price of Rs 157.10 discounts its Q2 September 2008 annualised EPS of Rs 1.72, by a PE multiple of 91.33.

Cairn said the government has approved to commercially develop three oil and gas discoveries in Kameshwari West and a new development area of 822 square kilometres in the northern appraisal area of Rajasthan blocks.

Cairn's managing director and CEO Rahul Dhir said in a statement that the approval will enable the company to develop the discoveries and access the area for further exploitation of additional resources.

The company's largest field, Mangala, also in Rajasthan is set to start production by the second half of 2009.

Cairn India, on 22 December 2008, had said it had made an oil and gas discovery near its existing field in Rajasthan. The company said the well had a flow of 500 barrels of oil per day and 0.4 million standard cubic feet of gas a day during a testing phase.

In November 2008, India's cabinet rejected an oil ministry proposal to award a deepwater block off the west coast to Cairn India, as the company had not offered the government an attractive enough share of potential production, or profit petroleum.

Cairn India reported a net profit of Rs 81.44 crore in Q3 September 2008 as against net loss of Rs 8.40 crore in Q3 September 2007. Total income surged 1258.1% to Rs 107.83 crore in Q3 September 2008 over Q3 September 2007.

Cairn India explores and produces crude oil and natural gas in India.