Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 162.03 points or 0.92% to 17,359.09.

On BSE, 1.79 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 11.96 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 316.25 and a low of Rs 309.05 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 250 on 26 August 2011. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 400.95 on 22 February 2012.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 6 July 2012, falling 1.9% compared with the Sensex's 6.48% rise. The stock had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, declining 12.08% as against Sensex's 0.2% rise.

The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 1907.87 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

US crude oil futures for August 2012 delivery were up 18 cents at $84.63 a barrel in electronic trading today, 9 July 2012. The contract lost $2.77 a barrel or 3.17% to settle at $84.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday, 6 July 2012, its lowest closing level since 2 July 2012. Prices are down 14 percent this year. Lower crude oil prices will result in lower realization from crude sales for oil exploration firms such as Cairn India.

The US economy added fewer jobs than forecast in June and the unemployment rate held at 8.2% in June. American employers added only 80,000 jobs in June, the government said late Friday. It was the third consecutive month of weak job growth. From April through June, the economy produced an average of just 75,000 jobs a month, the weakest three months since August through October 2010. The jobs report capped off a week of lackluster data pointing to a slowing US economic recovery.

US is world's biggest crude consumer.

China's consumer-price index eased to a 29-month low in June, giving Wen Jiabao more room to relax economic policies after the second interest-rate cut in a month. The consumer price index rose 2.2% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said today in Beijing.

China is due to release Q2 June 2012 GDP growth data, along with industrial output and other June metrics, on Friday, 13 July 2012.

In remarks over the weekend, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged an intensification of policy fine-tuning in the world's second biggest economy. His comments come close on the heels of China's central bank cutting both its policy lending and deposit rates in a surprise move last week -- it's second rate-cut in less than a month.

China is the second biggest consumer of crude after the US.

Cairn India's consolidated net profit fell 11% Rs 2186.23 crore on 0.1% decline in net sales to Rs 3651.34 crore in Q4 March 2012 over Q4 March 2011.

Cairn India is primarily engaged in the business of oil and gas exploration, production and transportation. The company's average daily gross operated production was 1,72,887 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in financial year ended March 2012 (FY 2012). The company sells its oil to major refineries in India and its gas to both PSU and private buyers.