The Indian government chose five banks that include the local units of HSBC Holdings and Citigroup Inc to administer the sale of its 10% stake in Indian Oil Corp.

India's government owns 78.92% of the country's top oil refiner. It seeks to sell over 242 million shares, which could raise about US $916 million (INR 54.6 billion), the Wall Street Journal reported.

A senior finance ministry official, who requested anonymity, said that SBI Capital Markets Ltd., JM Financial and UBS Securities are the other three banks. The official further said that the federal cabinet may state the share-sale proposal in the next two weeks and that the deal may take place in September.

The government has been selling their shares in state-run companies to raise revenue to decrease their fiscal deficit. Reports suggest that the shortage is at 4.9% of the gross domestic product. With such sales, it seeks to cut the figure to less than 3% within the