Indian stock market indices have extended their opening losses over the last two hours of trade. All sectoral indices are trading in the red led by consumer durables and realty stocks.
The BSE-Sensex is trading down by 113 points and the NSE-Nifty is trading weak by 38 points. BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are trading down by 1% and 0.6% respectively. The rupee is trading at 52.14 to the US dollar.
Power stocks are trading in the red led by Power Trading Corporation (PTC India) and Tata Power. As per a leading financial daily, the Indian power sector has the potential to create around 0.6 m jobs in the next 5 years. The sector that is expected to see a capacity addition of about 0.1 m megawatt during the 12th five year plan (2012-2017) will be requiring investments of about US$ 300-400 bn for this addition. At present the capacity is 0.16 m megawatt. The sector will require minimum 0.4 m people for operation and maintenance, generation, transmission and distribution. However, with increased automation and technical upgrades, the demand for manual labour may come down in the power sector in the future.
Banking stocks are trading weak today led by UCO Bank and Allahabad Bank. As per a leading financial daily, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to open branches in Tier 2 cities even without its permission. These tier 2 cities are cities with a population of more than 50,000 but less than a lakh. The decision was taken to speed up the opening of branches and thereby the development of the banking sector in the tier 2 cities. It has been observed that the banks in tier 2 cities are not growing as per the desired pace. It may be noted here that for tier 3- 6 cities, banks already have such relaxation.
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