Banks,engineering stocks weigh on mkts

Fri, 4 Oct 11:30 am

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After a positive start, the Indian stock markets are trading flat in the morning session. The pull back toward the dotted line is largely due to selling pressure in Banking and Capital Goods stocks.

The BSE-Sensex is down 8 points and the NSE-Nifty is trading down 3 points. The BSE Mid Cap index is trading down 0.1% and the BSE Small Cap index is trading up 0.3% The Rupee is trading at 61.48 to the US Dollar.

Power stocks are trading lower today. JSW Energy and Tata Power are among the top losers. India's largest private sector power company Tata Power has announced that it has begun construction work for the first phase of its 400 MW hydro power joint venture project in Georgia. This is Tata power's biggest project outside India. The first phase has a generation capacity of 185 MW. This hydel project would be jointly developed by Tata Power along with Clean Energy of Norway and IFC Infra Ventures. The project is being developed primarily to supply power to the country of turkey.

This is not the first hydel power project that Tata power has developed. The company already has hydel generation capacity of 450 MW in Maharashtra. Apart from this, it has partnership with Norway based SN Power to develop hydel projects. It is also developing the 114 MW Dagachhu hydel power project, along with Druk Green Power Company, in Bhutan. Tata Power as part of its sustainability initiatives, aims to have 20-25% of its total electricity generation capacity from clean energy sources. The company has a total installed capacity of over 8,500 MW. Tata Power is trading down 1.8% today.

Auto stocks have been witnessing a rally since two days. TVS Motors and Tata Motors are leading the gainers. After better than expected sales numbers, Auto sector has got a boost from recent initiative by the government to extend additional funds to the PSU banks to finance auto (particularly in two-wheeler segment) and consumer goods purchases. This decision comes in the wake of upcoming festival season as availability of more funds will encourage demand and help overcome the slowdown in these sectors. This additional amount will be over and above Rs 140 bn which was provided for capital infusion in budget. According to a leading business daily, the decision to increase the quantum of capital provided to banks was taken at a meeting between Finance Minister P Chidambaram, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram yesterday.