Realty stocks boost the markets

Wed, 12 Jan 09:30 am

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Asian markets have opened the day on an upbeat note. Benchmark indices in Indonesia (up 1.6%), Hong Kong (up 0.8%) and Japan (up 0.5%) are leading the pack of gainers. Following cues from its Asian peers, Indian markets have opened the day in the positive as well. Realty and banking stocks are the biggest gainers.

The BSE-Sensex is trading higher by around 140 points (0.7%), while the NSE-Nifty is up by about 50 points (0.9%). Mid and small cap stocks are trading in the positive as well, with the BSE Midcap BSE Small cap down by 0.7% and 0.5% respectively. The rupee is trading at 45.07 to the US dollar.

Engineering stocks have opened the day on a mixed note. While Gammon India and L&T are trading in the red, BEML and BHEL are witnessing some buying interest. Engineering behemoth L&T has set out an ambitious target for its power equipment subsidiary, L&T Power. It expects the latter to be one of the biggest contributors to the revenues of the parent by 2015. The management expects revenues from the subsidiary to grow from the current levels of US$ 400 m to US$ 3 bn by 2015. The revenue growth would be driven by the boiler turbine packages which the management expects to be in the range of 25-26 of which the management expects at least half of the orders to come to the company in the next 12 months. L&T Power is also the holding company for the joint ventures (JVs) with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The JVs are for manufacturing supercritical technology based boilers and turbine generator sets for thermal power units. The JVs have an aggregate order book of Rs 320 bn which are deliverable over the next 2-3 years.

Steel stocks have opened today on a positive note. Key gainers include JSW Steel and Bhushan Steel. As per a leading business daily, Tata Steel is looking to raise fresh equity money through a follow-on public offer or FPO. The company is looking to issue 57 m new shares to raise money towards part repayment of its debt. Its current debt stands at around US$ 10.7 bn, a large part of which was assumed while buying out the UK-based steelmaker Corus in early 2007. Although the company is yet to announce the FPO price, the issue will fetch around US$ 820 m if the current price is considered. Corus accounts for two-thirds of Tata Steel's global steelmaking capacity of 30 m tonne, and has been facing pressure owing to the ongoing slowdown in the European and other western markets. Overall, Tata Steel expects some pressure on its margins in the coming months on eth back of rising raw material prices, like that of iron ore and coking coal.