Firm close for Indian indices

Thu, 4 Jul Closing

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   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   11:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

After yesterday's weakness, Indian equity markets recovered today to trade in the positive throughout today's session. The day's proceedings began on a firm note and although the morning session saw the indices trade largely within a range, the momentum picked up in the final trading hours. This ensured a firm close for the indices. While the BSE-Sensex today closed higher by 233 points, the NSE-Nifty closed higher by 66 points. The BSE Mid Cap and the BSE Small Cap index also did well to notch gains of 0.5% and 0.2% respectively. Gains were largely seen in FMCG and IT stocks.

As regards global markets, Asian indices closed mixed today while European indices have opened in the green. The rupee was trading at Rs 60.13 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Auto stocks closed mixed today. While Ashok Leyland and Bajaj Auto were the major losers, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) found favour. As per a leading business daily, Bajaj Auto has outlined plans of revamping its entire three-wheeler portfolio in FY14. This is across the petrol and diesel variants and will involve launching of new models. The company already is the market leader in this space and aims to sustain this through this strategy. Of the total three-wheeler sales of the company, about 55% comes from exports to more than 23 countries. The rest is sold in the domestic market. It must be noted that in the first three months of FY14, while volumes of motorcycles fell by 12.5% YoY, three-wheeler volumes did very well to grow by 23.6% YoY. In the overall product mix, three-wheelers account for only 11% of volumes, while motorcycles account for the rest.

As per a leading business daily, the Coal Ministry has allocated 14 new mines to public sector power companies. This is expected to cater to near 31,800 MW of capacity involving an investment of Rs 1,600 bn. The blocks are being offered on the basis of applications and not bids. But they would be governed under Competitive Bidding of Coal Mine Rules, 2012. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has emerged as the largest beneficiary as 4 blocks have been awarded to the company. These have estimated reserves of around 1,995 m tonnes. It must be noted that at the end of FY13, NTPC's generation capacity stood at 41,184 MW. The company added capacity of 4,170 MW during the year, while adding 4,830 MW in commercial operations. Company's generating volumes during quarter ended March 2013 were flat. The stock of NTPC closed lower today.