Sensex closes week 3.1% higher

Fri, 11 Oct Closing

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Indian equity markets witnessed a rally today strengthened by IT behemoth Infosys' September quarter earnings announcement. Stocks from the IT, banking and capital goods sectors were in favor today. Stocks from metals, power and healthcare were the major laggards. The BSE-Sensex closed higher by 256 points and the NSE-Nifty was up by 75 points. Also, the BSE Mid Cap and the BSE Mid Cap closed the day on a positive note and were up by 0.5% and 0.3% respectively.

The sentiments at global markets have been positive with European markets opening on a firm note, and Asian indices also closing on a positive note. The rupee was trading at Rs 61.06 to the dollar at the time of writing.

As per business dailies, the government has announced likelihood of auctioning of coal blocks to be allocated to private firms in December 2013. This decision comes in the light of the Cabinet approving the methodology for auctioning coal blocks. The reason for delay in auctioning was the need for exploration of these coal blocks. The governmet has already provided for upfront and production-linked payments and benchmarked coal sale prices. The Coal blocks will be put for auction after the environment ministry reviews them and bidders have to agree to a minimum work programme. This policy is expected to ensure greater transparency and pave the way for the government to auction explored blocks. 6 explored blocks with estimated reserves of over 2000 mn tonnes will be auctioned first. The government had earlier allocated 14 coal mines to central and public sector units including 4 to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). It had further planned to auction 54 coal blocks with total estimated reserve of about 18 bn tonnes.

Except Maharashtra Scooters, TVS Motors and Bajaj Auto, all the automobile stocks closed the day on a positive note. Stocks such as Tube Investments and Escorts were the biggest gainers for the day.

According to leading financial news daily, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) will allow its 2-wheeler business to be managed by its flagship automotive and farm equipment business sectors (AFS). The company expects to take advantage of the synergies. Besides, M&M has infused an additional equity worth Rs 1.8 bn into the flagship company over last 6 months to shore up capital for its currently bleeding 2-wheeler business. Unlike Mahindra Trucks and Buses entity, the movement of Mahindra Two Wheelers is management realignment and will become a part of the Automotive & Farm Equipment Division. This re-alignment is expected to help the 2-wheeler business to take advantages of synergies of the automotive and farm equipment division business across the value chain including R&D, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and the human capital. This strategy will definitely ensure that Mahindra 2-wheelers remains core to the automobile business of M&M.