Indian markets trade flat

Fri, 25 Oct 11:30 am

   Previous Close   

   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

   Closing   

After opening in the red, the Indian Indices are trading flat in the morning session. The selling pressure is the highest in pharma and metal stocks.

The BSE-Sensex is down 20 points and the NSE-Nifty is trading down 12 points. The BSE Mid Cap index is trading flat and the BSE Small Cap index is trading down 0.2%. The Rupee is trading at 61.64 to the US Dollar.

Most IT stocks are trading positive today. Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) are among the stocks leading the gainers. According to a leading business daily Tech Mahindra has lost a large contract from British Telecom (BT) to Virtusa Corporation. The deal which was up for renewal was worth a little over US$ 100 m and employed over 1000 people. The company will now have to relocate the employees that would be affected by the loss of this big contract. British Telecom contributed about 30% of the company's revenues in FY13. With the loss of this contract, BT would cease to be the company's largest client after a period of nearly 25 years. Tech Mahindra has been reducing its dependence on BT after the acquisition of Satyam computer services in 2009. Tech Mahindra is trading down 3.6% today.

Power stocks are trading mixed today. Adani Power and JSW Energy are leading the losers. NTPC and Torrent Power are leading the gainers. NTPC has appealed to the government to extend gas supplies from the D6 block in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin beyond 2014. In 2009, an empowered group of Ministers (eGoM) allocated 4.5 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) to the public power sector. Out of this, around 2.3 mmscmd had been contracted with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) - the operator of D6 gas fields. The present gas sale agreements stand to expire in March 2014.

AS per NTPC, continuation of supply of gas from KG basin beyond March 2014 is very crucial for NTPC's gas stations. NTPC is using the gas from KG basin for its power stations in Anta, Auraiya, Dadri and Faridabad. NTPC has also raised concerns that RIL and its partners are changing the terms and conditions of the gas-sale-purchase-agreement (GSPA) in their favour. As per the new draft of GSPA; the seller will be absolved of any liability and the buyer will have no right to sue the seller in case of delay or shortfall in supply of gas. NTPC has also sought the power ministry's intervention to sort out these differences over GSPA. In the past due to absence or delay of gas supply from RIL during the winter months; NTPC had bought expensive imported LNG. On the other hand, RIL has cited fall in output in its KG-D6 field as a reason to not commit the required supplies to its customers including NTPC. NTPC is trading 1% up today.