Mid & small caps in favor today

Mon, 29 Sep 01:30 pm

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The Indian stock markets continued to remain flat during the previous two hours of trade. Pharmaceutical sector stocks were leading the pack of gainers, while those from the FMCG space were trading in the red. Mid and small capitalization stocks were in favor today with their representative indices trading higher by over 1%.

At the time of writing, the BSE-Sensex was trading up by 50 points and the NSE-Nifty was trading up by 13 points. The BSE Mid Cap index was trading up 1.3% while the BSE Small Cap index was up by 1.7%. The rupee was trading at 61.42 to the US dollar.

Aluminium stocks are trading firm led by NALCO and Hindalco. As per a leading business daily, aluminium major NALCO is considering filing of review petition to Supreme Court for reconsideration of its decision to cancel allotment of coal block to Navratna PSU. NALCO's Utkal E coal block is among 214 blocks that have been de-allocated by the Supreme Court recently. The company is of the view that it almost met the criteria of Supreme Court for allowing 4 coal blocks to operate. The company maintains to be a PSU and has not entered in to any joint venture with private player. As such, it is seeking legal opinion for filing review petition on the order. In fact, the company has made significant progress in the development of the coal block. For instance, it made almost 70% of the land acquisition and has invested about Rs 1 bn for the development of the block.

In another development, NALCO is expected to pay total 30% dividend for FY14 to its share holders, which was approved at its 33rd AGM. As such, the dividend amounts to Rs 1.5 per share and the company will payout total Rs 3.87 bn for FY14. NALCO is trading higher by 3.2% today.

Auto stocks are trading mixed today. While Escorts is trading firm, Maruti and Bajaj Auto are trading in the red. As per a leading business daily, the Automotive Mission Plan (AMP) II for the next decade 2006-2016 is expected to be finalized by mid 2015. This plan was announced in 2006. The AMP 2006-16 had envisaged India to become an international hub for designing and manufacturing of automobiles and auto components with output reaching US$ 145 billion and contributing more than 10% of India's GDP. It also envisaged the Indian automobile market to provide employment to 25 million people by 2016. The next 10 year plan is currently under preparation among the auto industry and it will be in line of Prime Minister 'Make in India' mission.