Realty, banking stocks rally markets

Mon, 4 Jul 11:30 am

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Indian stock markets pared some of their opening gains on the back of sell off witnessed in heavy weights over the last two hours of trade. Stocks from the realty and banking space are trading firm while stocks from the capital goods space are trading weak.

The BSE-Sensex is trading up by 64 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 18 points above the dotted line. BSE Midcap index is up by 0.7% while the BSE Small cap index is trading 0.8% above Friday's closing. The rupee is trading at 44.45 to the US dollar.

Auto stocks are trading firm led by Force Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M). As per a leading financial daily, M&M will soon be launching India's first indigenous aircraft prototype. This aircraft will be a utility aircraft with 5, 8, 10, 18 and 22-seater capacity. Presently, the 2-20 seating capacity aircraft market is valued at US$ 5 bn and is seeing strong growth of 15% year on year. These aircrafts find use in tourism, cargo and adventure sports besides use as a normal commercial aircraft. M&M has invested US$ 11.2 bn into the development of this aircraft. It may be recalled that the company had acquired GippsAero, an Australian aviation company in January this year to manufacture aircraft. M&M has also entered into a joint venture with National Aeronautics Laboratory to manufacture aircraft and aero components. The company plans to set up a US$ 60 m centre in Bangalore for the manufacture of this aircraft. In the next five years M&M expects to earn US$ 150 m annually from its aerospace component business.

Power stocks are trading mixed with Reliance Infra and CESC Ltd trading firm while NTPC and Torrent Power Ltd are trading weak. As per a leading financial daily, Tata Power has built India's first floating solar plant at Walvan Lake near Lonavala, where the company has a hydel power station. This solar plant will generating 13.5 KW and has been put up on a trial basis. Tata Power is studying the feasibility of generating power by floating photovoltaic film. If this meets the company's expectations, then Tata Power will scale this to 400 MW.

It may be noted that Tata Power has entered into a partnership with Australian solar power company, Sunengy Pty. to build a pilot project for the company's patented low-cost, floating-on-water liquid solar array technology in India by the end of this year. Tata Power has already invested about Rs 30 m into this project. The technology involved in this power project has the potential to reduce solar energy generation costs by 30-40%. Presently the price of kilowatt hour general by solar cell is Rs 15. This technology has the potential to lower this to Rs 8 per kilowatt hour. Tata Power has direct access to around 24,000 acres of water surface. 1 MW of power can be generated per 6 acres of water using this technology. Hence, Tata Power has the potential to generate 4,000 MW, which is equivalent to a ultra-mega power plant if large scale viability is established.