Metal, realty stocks lead gains

Tue, 17 Apr 01:30 pm

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Despite seeing some volatility, the Indian markets continued to trade well above the dotted line during the previous hour of trade. Barring stocks from the consumer durables space, all the sectoral indices were trading firm. Stocks from the realty, metal and capital goods spaces were amongst the top gainers.

The BSE-Sensex is up by 155 points, while the NSE-Nifty is up by 44 points. BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index are up by 0.5% and 0.4%. The rupee is trading at 51.52 to the US dollar.

Auto stocks are currently trading firm led by Hero Motocorp, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland. Auto major, Tata Motors reported a 26% YoY rise in its global sales figures for the month of March 2012. Growth in the month was led by a strong jump in sales of Jaguar Land Rover. The sales figures were led by a surge in the passenger vehicles segment, with the same seeing a growth of 41% YoY. In the commercial vehicle segment (which includes Tata, Tata Daewoo and the Tata Hispano Carrocera range), global sales were higher by 12% YoY during the month. As for the full year, the auto major's sales were up by 16% YoY. For the full year, CV sales rose by 17% YoY. The passenger vehicle segment rose by 14 % YoY for the full year. Sales figures for the JLR brands have done well in recent times due to certain launches seeing a good response globally. In fact, the demand for certain models was strong, mainly in China.

The board of PSU mining major Coal India board has given its approval for signing Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) with power companies before April 20, 2012. The coal major, however, has agreed to keep the penalty for failing to supply at least 80% of the contracted coal, at the minimum level. The company will pay a penalty of an average of 0.01% of shortfalls in supplies. It may be recalled that the government had issued a presidential directive to CIL to commit a minimum assured fuel supply to the power producers. Failing this obligation the company would be subject to paying a penalty. Keeping in mind the intense lobbying by the power sector, the government directed Coal India (CIL) to guarantee long-term supplies to the power sector, even if it has to resort to imports. Coal India which supplies fuels for more than half the power generated in India, has been failing to meet the demands of power producers over the past few years. Given the FSA, Coal India is expected to bear the cost of expensive imported coal or pay penalties.