Indian share markets trade positive

Thu, 25 Oct 01:30 pm

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Backed by select buying in index heavyweights, Indian share markets continued to trade above the dotted line in the post-noon trading session. Majority of the sectoral indices are trading negative with realty, consumer durable and pharma stocks leading the pack of losers. Oil and gas, auto and metal stocks are among the few gainers.

BSE-Sensex is up 41 points and NSE-Nifty is trading up 11 points. While BSE Mid Cap Index is down 0.3%, BSE Small Cap index is down marginally. The rupee is trading at 53.6 to the US dollar.

Most of the power stocks are trading in negative led by PTC India and JSW Energy. Jaiprakash Power and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) are among the few gainers. As per a report by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), 62,925 MW of power generation capacity in the country is lying vacant due to scarcity of fuel supply by Coal India (CIL). State-owned NTPC has 15,860 MW of its capacity stranded due to less receipt of coal from CIL. The CEA report has stated that 47 power stations suffered scarcity of fuel with fuel stocks of not more than a week. The CEA data shows that there was peak power deficit of 9% or 12,159 MW during the first half of FY13 with the peak power deficit touching 10% or 12,159 MW in September alone. To address this problem, the Prime Minister's Office had earlier directed CIL to sign Fuel Supply Agreements (FSA) with power companies even in the absence of Power Purchase Agreements (PPA).

The engineering stocks are trading mixed with Elgi Equipments and Elecon Engineering being the biggest gainers and Alstom Projects and AIA Engineering being the biggest losers. It is reported that Voltas has overtaken its peers in the air condition market in the month of August, this year. As per a recent study by GFK Nielsen, Voltas was the market leader during the month with a 20.6% share. The company was followed by LG Electronics India (15% market share) and Samsung Electronics (12% market share). It is believed that Voltas' share stood at about 15% during 1QFY11 and 4QFY12. As per the company's management, the increase in market share has been attributed to a prolonged summer as well as the aggressive marketing of the company's all-weather air conditioners introduced about six months ago. The company's wider retail footprint also had a role to play towards the same. It is believed that Voltas currently has about 6,000 consumer touch points across the country. As for FY13, the company's division is looking at a volume growth of about 15%. It may be noted that the company's unitary cooling products segments contributed to about 47% of revenues during 1QFY13.