Energy stocks lead the gainers

Thu, 20 May 11:30 am

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Indian markets pared the opening gains as investors chose to book profits in heavyweights during the previous two hours of trade. Stocks from energy and PSU space are seeing buying interest while stocks from consumer goods and realty space are trading in the red on the back of selling by investors.

BSE-Sensex is trading up 90 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 25 points above the dotted line. BSE-Midcap index is trading marginally in the green while the BSE-Smallcap index is trading 0.1% above yesterday's closing. The rupee is trading at 46.65 to the US dollar.

As per a leading financial daily, state owned power transmission company Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) is planning to float tenders worth around Rs 640 bn in the current fiscal year. These tenders are for 9 new high-capacity corridors for transmitting power from projects in Orissa, Sikkim, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. These 9 corridors are aimed towards transmitting electricity from 38 private developers, having a generation capacity of around 42,000MW. While the transmission link from Orissa has already received approval from Central Electricity Authority, notice inviting tenders (NITs) are currently under preparation. These NITs are expected to be floated around August. The company expects that after the floating of NITs, it would take about a year to award them.

In the meantime, the company has taken approval from its share holders for expanding its debt limit from Rs 500 bn to Rs 800 bn. While this is a positive for the company, reflecting that its expansion plans are on track, this tender is also expected to be a major positive for transmission engineering procurement and construction firms like Jyoti Structures Ltd, KEC International, Gammon India Ltd and Crompton Greaves, amongst others.

A leading business daily has reported that India's largest utility vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is looking at launching its pickup trucks in the US market by the end of this year. The US market is the world's biggest pick-up truck market with annual sales of about 13 m units. It is reported that the company will initially manufacture the trucks at the company's Chakan facility (near Pune) and then export the units to US. The company plans to manufacture these trucks locally (in the US) with the help of a local partner sometime in the future. It may be noted that M&M had planned to enter the US market in December 2008. However due to the overall slowdown it had deferred its plan.

This is the first time an Indian car manufacturer is foraying into the US market. As such, it would definitely be a test. The company will also have to compete with the likes of Toyota, Ford, GM and Nissan in this segment. However, one advantage that M&M has is that its pickup trucks run on diesel. Currently, no pick-up manufacturer offers a diesel option. As per the company, it is targeting a 5 to 7% market share during the first year of launch.