Indian markets open firm

Fri, 11 Sep 09:30 am

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The major Asian stock markets have opened the day on a mixed note. Stock markets in Hong Kong and Indonesia are up by 1% and 0.7% respectively. However the stock markets in Singapore and China are down by 1.4% and 0.06% respectively.

The major stock indices in the European markets ended their previous session in red. However the benchmark indices in the US closed their previous session up by 0.8%. The rupee is trading at 66.33 per US dollar.

Indian stock markets have also have opened the day on an encouraging note too. BSE Sensex is trading up by 197 points (up 0.8%) and NSE-Nifty is trading up by 54 points (up 0.7%). BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap have surged upward. Both the indices are trading up by 0.8% and 0.9% respectively. Sectoral indices have opened the day on a positive note with stocks from oil & gas, FMCG and realty sector witnessing maximum buying interest.

As per an article in Livemint, car sales in India rose for the 10th month in a row in August. However the pace of growth has slowed to 6% on a Y-o-Y basis. Sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV), leading indicators of a pick-up in the economic activities rose by 35.39%. The growth in the M&HCV segment was partially driven by replacement demand by truck companies. The surge in this segment was on the back of up gradation done by the fleet owners. This step was taken as the fleet owners wanted to keep their vehicles at par as the government is looking forward to mandatorily implement some safety measures. On the other hand, the sales of two-wheelers declined for the 11th month in a row. The decline was contributed by weak rural demand as the rural consumers are facing a deficient rainfall for the second consecutive year.

Stocks in the mining sector are trading on a positive note. As per an article in Economic Times, Coal India's plan to double the production of coal by 2020 seems to be in jeopardy. The completion of 25 key projects is meant to deliver half of the planned targeted output. However for most of these projects the land clearance, environmental clearances and transportation of coal by rail; known as evacuation is yet to be arranged. There has been some progress on the construction of rail links, whereby government is forming special purpose vehicles (SPV) in which Coal India is likely to hold the majority stake, followed by the Indian Railways and the respective state governments. The SPVs will set up three rail lines and will have a capacity to carry 300 million tonnes of coal. Stock of Coal India is trading up by 0.5%