A firm end after a volatile day

Tue, 6 Oct Closing

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After having witnessed a fairly volatile day, buying activity intensified in the post noon trading session, with the markets closing on a firm note. The BSE-Sensex closed higher by about 147 points, while the NSE-Nifty ended higher by about 33 points. Stocks from the consumer durables and FMCG spaces were the most in demand today, while those from the IT and banking spaces were the least favored. Smallcaps ended the day on a firm note as the S&P BSE Smallcap index ended with gains of about 0.7%, while the S&P BSE Midcap Index closed higher by about 0.3%.

Asian stock markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. While the Nikkei 225 gained 1%, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.48%. The Hang Seng lost 0.19%. European markets opened mixed. The CAC 40 and DAX were up by 0.54% and 0.45%, while the FTSE 100 is off by 0.06%. The rupee weakened to 65.36 against the US dollar in the afternoon session.

According to a leading financial daily, Coal India has reported provisional production of 37.17 million tonnes in September 2015, as against target of 38.77 million tonnes. The company's total off-take for the month of September stood at 40.41 million tonnes as against a target of 39.71 million tonnes. The company, which accounts for about 80% of the domestic coal production, had missed its production target for FY15 by 3%.

Sharp dip in global commodity, particularly coal prices, fall in coal e-auction demand and realizations and slow growth in domestic production, all put together had made FY15 a painful year for Coal India. Although the last quarter recouped most of the volumes lost in the initial half of FY15, lower realization took the sheen off the performance of Coal India. While e-auction quantities continued to remain sluggish in the first quarter of FY16 as well, improvement in production volumes in the first quarter of FY16 has been encouraging The government has set one billion tonne production goal for the PSU by 2020. The scrip of Coal India ended the trading day on a very encouraging note (up 4%) on the BSE.

IT stocks ended the day on a weak note with Infosys and Tech Mahindra leading the losses. According to a leading economic daily, Tech Mahindra has signed an agreement with Bombardier Commercial Aircraft for developing the Aircraft Ground Support System (AGSS) for Bombardier's Aircraft Health Management System (AHMS) for the C Series family of aircraft. The AGSS will facilitate real-time and post-flight recorded data management, fault notification and diagnostic reporting. The company's digital solutions for the AHMS will leverage cutting-edge Cloud Computing, Sensor, Internet of Things (I0T) and Big Data technologies to perform deep analytics of the aircraft's health status.