Indian share markets remain in green

Fri, 12 Jul 11:30 am

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Indian share markets have generally traded in green during the previous two hours of trade. The most noticeable upward movements have been witnessed in the software sector.

The BSE-Sensex is up by 147 points and NSE-Nifty is up by 27 points. BSE Mid Cap is up by 0.1% and BSE Small Cap is up by 0.2%. The rupee is trading at 59.91 to the US dollar.

Except Info Edge, all Software (Large) shares are trading in green with Infosys Ltd and Tech Mahindra leading the gains. According to a leading financial news medium, Infosys Ltd, India's second largest software exporter, has posted a 3.7% YoY growth in net profit for the 1QFY14. Contract wins and foreign exchange earnings have boosted earnings for the quarter. However, sequentially the profits have declined marginally by 0.8%. The revenues came at Rs 113 bn reporting 17% YoY growth and 8% QoQ growth during the quarter. Infosys has left the FY14 dollar guidance unchanged. The company also maintained its forecast of 6%-10% revenue growth for the financial year 2014. During the quarter, the company maintained its margins and continued with making investments in the business. However, going ahead margins would come under pressure on account of compensation increase for FY14. Further, Infosys' top client contributed 3.9% to the company's total revenues during the quarter. While the company observed gross addition of 10,138 employees, the attrition rate at 16.9% remained a concern during the quarter. That said, the management stands satisfied with the earnings performance; given the macro challenges and the volatile currency movement.

Except few such as Reliance Power and Guj Ind Power, most of the power sector shares are trading in red with JSW Energy and CESC Ltd facing the maximum selling pressures. According to leading financial news daily, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the power generator major, has received coal supply to its two thermal power plants as Eastern Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India resumes the supply. NTPC had held back the part of the payments since April this year, accusing the poor energy content of the coal supplied by Coal India. The supplied fuel had less than promised calorific content. Hence, Eastern Coalfields had been supplying less than the contracted amount of coal to NTPC's power plants in West Bengal and Bihar. As a result, there was about Rs 10 bn of difference between the bill raised by the coal supplier and the amount paid by NTPC. With the intervention of senior officials from power and coal ministries, sampling of the coal being supplied to NTPC has been agreed to be carried out. This will ensure quality for NTPC and the payments to the coal supplier will fall in place. In all, the Eastern Coalfields supplies 56,000-64,000 tonnes of coal per day to the two thermal power plants. With the clearing of air, NTPC is expected to sign a fresh coal supply agreement with Eastern Coalfields. NTPC share is up by 0.3%.