Barring Singapore, major Asian stock markets have opened the day on a negative note. The stock markets in China and Japan are trading lower by 1.3% and 0.4% respectively. Major indices in Europe and US ended their previous session on an encouraging note. The rupee is trading at 68.55 per US$.
Indian stock markets have opened the day on a negative note. The BSE Sensex is trading lower by 67 points (down 0.3%) and NSE Nifty is trading lower by 24 points (down 0.4%). Both, BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap are trading marginally lower by 0.04% and 0.01% respectively. Barring, pharmaceutical sector, major sectoral indices have opened the day in red with stocks from banking and FMCG sectors witnessing maximum buying interest.
As reported in a leading financial daily, National Thermal Power Corporation seeks to raise around Rs 50 billion through a two-day offer for sale (OFS) that begins today. The bid for retail investors will commence from tomorrow and will close on the same day. Reportedly, the floor price for the offer for sale is set at Rs 122 per share. Provided the divestment is successful the government will pare 5% of its total stake of 74.96% as of 31 December.
NTPC will be the sixth divestment by the government in this fiscal. The government had set a divestment target at approx. Rs 695 billion for the current fiscal. However, till date the government has been able to raise approx.. Rs 135 billion through the divestment route. We will shortly come up with a note mentioning our view on NTPC's offer for sale. The stock is trading down by 1.9%.
In another news update, the production at Maruti Suzuki India's manufacturing plant is expected to get affected on account of shortage of parts for few days. The shortage has occurred because of ongoing blockade of the national highways and other roads by the member of Jat community in Haryana.
Further, the company is likely to incur a production loss of at least 10,000 vehicles due to the ongoing protests. However, the company is expected to ramp up output to make up for these losses once the situation in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt normalizes. The company is also making efforts to arrange for components from other sources. The stock is trading up by 1%.
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