Indian stock market indices have been trading in the negative territory over the last two hours of trade. Oil and gas and metal stocks witnessed maximum selling pressure, while FMCG and Power stocks witnessed maximum buying interest.
The BSE-Sensex is down by 35 points, while the NSE-Nifty is down 5 points. BSE Mid cap index and the BSE Small cap index are up by 0.21% and 0.26% respectively. The rupee is trading at 50.22 to the US dollar.
Engineering stocks are trading mixed with Jain Irrigation and AIA Engineering leading the gainers and Bharat Bijlee and Alstom Projects trading the weakest. As per a leading financial daily, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) expects a sales growth of 10% from its electrical and automation (E&A) business in the next fiscal year (FY13) on account of heavy demand and improvement in power and infrastructure sectors. For the current fiscal (FY12), the company expects a growth of 18% in the sector and a drop in margins by 2%. Within the segment, the company has launched around 10 products and expects to continue the trend with the launch of seven to eight products including variants every year for which it has earmarked a capex of around Rs 1-1.5 bn per annum. The stock was trading in the red.
Energy stocks are trading mixed with Castrol and Essar Oil leading the gainers and Gas Authority Of India Ltd. (GAIL) and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) trading the weakest. As per a leading financial daily, shortage of gas from the D6-block in the Krishna-Godavari basin is beginning to take a toll on gas-based projects ready for power generation. Three gas-based power projects developed by Reliance Power, Lanco and GMR groups in Andhra Pradesh have not commenced power generation due to lack of gas from Reliance Industries owned D6-block. The three projects are being implemented under the 11th Five-year plan and are required to be synchronized before March 2012. Reportedly, production of gas from the KG-D6 block has declined due to reservoir complexity and natural decline in reserves. During 9MFY12, production of natural gas from the reservoir has fallen by 22% YoY to 436.4 billion cubic feet.
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