After opening in the green, the Indian Indices have shed some gains in the last two hours of trading and are trading firm. Maximum buying is seen in Healthcare stocks; while profit booking is seen in Engineering and Metal stocks.
The BSE-Sensex is trading up 58 points and the NSE-Nifty is trading up 21 points. The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up 0.7% and the BSE Small Cap index is trading up 0.9%. The rupee is trading at 61.20 to the US dollar.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry; India's core sector growth has been disappointing in the month of March, 2014. It slowed to 2.5% from 7% in the corresponding month of last year. The slow growth was on account of decline in output of crude oil, natural gas and fertilizer. The eight core industries -- fertilizers, cement, steel, electricity, crude oil, coal, petroleum refinery products and natural gas together contribute 38% to the Index of Industrial Production. For FY14, core sector growth slowed to 2.6 % from 6.5% in FY13. In January and February, the eight core sectors grew by 1.6 % and 4.5% respectively.
Engineering stocks are trading mixed today. Suzlon Energy and Voltas are leading the gainers; while Cummins India and Alstom T&D are leading the pack of losers. BHEL has entered into an initial agreement with the government of Yemen for setting up solar power projects. BHEL has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Electricity and Energy (Yemen) for setting up Solar Photovoltaic (PV) based power plants at different locations in Yemen. Also, BHEL is presently executing a 400 MW Gas Turbine based power plant, Marib Phase-II, in Yemen. BHEL has been facing a slowdown in domestic business on account of delay in capacity addition due to economic downturn and policy hurdles. Therefore, the company has been expediting efforts to increase its exposure to export markets particularly Middle East and the gulf nations. BHEL is trading 1% down today.
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