Asian stock markets have opened the day on a weak note. Stock markets in Hong Kong (down 0.2%), Singapore (down 0.1%) and Japan (down 0.1%) are in the red while China (up 0.3%) in the green. The Indian stock markets have opened the day on a firm note. Stocks in the capital goods and realty space are leading the gains while consumer durables stocks are in the red.
The BSE-Sensex is trading up by 75 points (0.4%) while the NSE-Nifty is up by around 22 points (0.4%). Mid cap and small cap stocks are trading in the green, with the BSE Mid cap and BSE Small cap indices up by 0.3% and 0.2% respectively. The rupee is trading at Rs 50.28 to the US dollar.
Capital Goods Stocks have opened the day on a firm note with Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) in the red. L&T Construction, a subsidiary of L&T has received an order worth Rs 9.7 bn. This purpose of this order is to construct a large Information Technology (IT) campus in Kolkata. The company in an official statement to the exchange did not identify the name of this IT client. However, it said that the project will be executed on a joint venture (JV) model within next 32 months. Similarly L&T Oman LLC has also secured an order worth Rs 1.7 bn from one of the electric company in Oman. This project is to be completed in the next 15 months.
Banks Stocks have opened the day on a firm note with State Bank Of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) in the green. SBI is weighing options to decrease interest rates on some sector specific loans. This comes as a surprise even when Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) has not yet changed the repo rates in the policy review. SBI's asset liability committee (ALCO) is expected to meet soon to decide on the new rates. The bank said that they see some room to cut interest rates after the cut in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) last week. The SBI chairman said that the final verdict will be given after the decision of ALCO committee.
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