The Indian markets continued to hover around the dotted region during the post noon trading session. While stocks from the auto and FMCG sectors seem to find favour amongst investors, stocks form the consumer durables and metal sectors were amongst the top underperformers at the moment.
The Sensex today is trading flat, higher by about 4 points, while the NSE-Nifty is trading lower by about 7 points (down 0.1%). Stocks from the midcap and smallcap spaces are trading however trading weak with the BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices down by about 0.5% each. The rupee is trading at 54.97 to the US dollar.
Stocks of auto companies are trading firm led by Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra. In fact, Maruti is the top performing stocks amongst those forming part of the BSE-Sensex. Gains in the auto stocks are seemingly on the back of news of companies expecting higher sales during the month of Novembers 2012 on the back of the festival season. It is believed that certain popular models of these companies have high waiting list periods - Dzire and the XUV 500 to be particular. It must be noted that news of the weak Japanese Yen have been making rounds amongst the business dailies. This has prompted investors to seek more interest in the stock of Maruti, which would benefit as it imports parts and technology from Japan.
Coal India Limited (CIL) Chairman and Managing Director, S. Narsingh Rao, said that it is not possible for the firm to meet the complete coal demand from indigenous sources till the 13th Five-Year Plan period. This is despite the fact that Coal India's production growing at 8-9%. The company needs to supply coal to additional 90,000 MW capacity over the 306 million tonnes supplied to thermal electricity generation plants currently. During the current 12th Five-Year Plan, India would face a coal supply gap of 185 mt. Coal production by the terminal year (2017) of 12th Plan is likely to touch 795 mt. This is after an incremental production of 255 mt compared to the previous Plan. During the 11th Five-Year plan, coal production was increased by 110 mt and there was a gap of 140 mt. However for there to be progress on this front, environmental and technical issues need to be fixed. CIL targets to produce 129 mt of coal in the 3QFY13. As of now, 30 fuel supply agreements have been signed.
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