Markets shed early gains

Fri, 18 Mar 11:30 am

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The Indian stock market indices were unable to hold on to their gains as selling pressure in heavyweights pushed them into the red. Most of the sectors are trading in the negative territory led by oil & gas and IT. Stocks from metals space are trading firm.

The BSE-Sensex is down by 180 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 45 points below yesterday's closing. Both BSE Midcap and BSE Small cap indices are down by 0.2% each. The rupee is trading at 45.10 to the US dollar.

Energy stocks are trading weak led by Reliance Industries and HPCL. As per a financial newspaper,Reliance Industries Ltd and GAIL have entered into a swap agreement for supplying gas to the southern part of India. This move is expected to bring relief to the power deficient region in peak summer by overcoming pipeline constraints. Andhra Pradesh does not have pipeline connectivity to LNG plants in Gujarat. According to the deal, RIL will supply nearly 2.6 mn cubic metres a day of gas to power producers in Andhra Pradesh which was earlier being used by customers in Western Gujarat. In return, GAIL will transmit an equal amount of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to customers in Gujarat. This move would lead to additional generation of about 600 megawatt of power.

The Indian government is encouraging the use of natural gas to reduce the dependence on costly oil imports of the country. The country presently has an installed power generation capacity of 164 gigawatts and is planning to raise this to 187 gigawatts by the end of March 2012. Finance stocks are trading weak led by Motilal Oswal and Power Finance Corporation. As per a leading financial daily HDFC Ltd has entered the property search business by launching its own real estate portal, www.hdfcred.com. As per a company's spokesperson, HDFC believes that this segment is an extension of the company's core business. HDFC had been coming across home buyers who were unable to get all details relating to their property search. This is because while information is available, it is scattered. The company with this portal aims to bring information scattered across all medium under one platform.

While the business is small at Rs 600 m, it is growing at about 50% annually. Some other players operating in this space are www.99acres.com, www.magicbricks.com and www.sulekha.com. However, HDFC believes that it can differentiate itself from them as the existing players are purely into real estate. On the other hand, HDFC has a long-standing relationship of almost 30 years with the top 1,000 builders/developers in the country. Moreover, the company is aware of the credibility of these developers to a large extent. This would help it deliver a more credible and comprehensive product. It may be noted that the revenue model in this space is based on online advertising revenues.