** Shares of India's Hindustan Oil Exploration Company NSE:HINDOILEXP rises 3% to 176 rupees
** Co said it won contract to explore a new oil and gas block in the Mumbai offshore region but did not give any financial details
** Besides co, Vedanta NSE:VEDL, other explorers such as ONGC NSE:ONGC and Oil India NSE:OIL also signed contracts
** VDAN down 0.4%, ONGC up 1.5% and OILI rise ~2%
** All firms in this lot in the red YTD, with OILI's 13% slide the steepest