Indian stock market indices have been trading in the positive on back of buying in index heavyweights over last two hours of trade. All sectoral indices are trading firm, led by metal and realty stocks.
The BSE-Sensex is trading up by 316 points and NSE-Nifty is trading firm by 87 points. BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are trading up by 1.4% and 1.5% respectively. The rupee is trading at 51.98 to the US dollar.
Power stocks are trading strong today. The gains are led by Neyveli Lignite and Torrent Power. As per a leading financial daily, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is in talks with Coal India and Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) to join the proposed joint venture of coal logistics. Coal India wants to deliver imported coal at the doorsteps of customers. This will be done through a Special Purpose Vehicle which would be a joint venture between associated parties. For this, it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SCI and Indian Railways. NTPC majorly imports coal and thus Coal India is banking on the participation of NTPC in this JV. NTPC aims to import 16 m tonnes to meet its requirement. To keep the coal prices from rising, the power generating companies want to limit their imports to 10% of total consumption.
PSU Banking stocks are trading firm led by State Bank of India (SBI) and UCO Bank. As per a leading financial daily, the Finance ministry has set some targets based on financial parameters that have to be achieved by the PSU banks. These have to be achieved over the next 4 years. The targets are on current and savings account deposits, return on asset, net profit per employee, cost to income ratio, market share etc. The PSU banks are finding this a deterrent in their growth plans. They feel that such a diktat is unprecedented and not required.
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