Volatility reigns supreme

Thu, 24 Dec 02:30 pm

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The Indian benchmark indices continued to trade on a volatile note during the previous two hours of trade. While the consumer durables, auto and realty sectors are seeing buying interest, select stocks from telecom, healthcare and FMCG sectors are seeing selling pressure.

BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty traded in the green, up by 50 points and 5 points respectively. The BSE-Midcap and BSE-Smallcap are trading up by 0.7% each. The rupee is trading at 46.74 to the dollar.

As per a leading business daily, India's second largest software exporter, Infosys has been selected to implement a US$ 83 m worth IT project from Karnataka's power distribution utilities. In this project, which will cover around 100 towns in the state, Infosys managed to outbid other 10 companies including TCS. The project is to be implemented in the next 36 months and is a part of central government funded program to use IT in order to reduce the electricity losses in the country. TCS and HCL Infosystems have already won such contracts for the states of West Bengal and Rajasthan respectively.

It may be noted that under Restructured - Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (R-APDRP), Indian government is aiming to reform the ailing power distribution sector. It aims at reducing the aggregate technical and commercial losses in power distribution sector to 15% from the existing 30%. For this purpose, it has planned Rs 100 bn IT automation project spanning over next 3 years. Indian IT majors are vying for such multi-million dollar projects in the Indian power distribution sector. The IT vendor will be responsible for building the IT backbone to detect points of power losses and aid corrective action. It may be noted that total funds of Rs 516 bn are allocated to R-APDRP during eleventh plan. Indian IT majors have a lot to gain from the same.

As per a leading business daily, auto major Maruti's management expects its sales for FY10 to rise by about 18% to 20%. It may be noted that the company's auto sales have risen 27% during the first eight months of FY10. The management expects this favourable trend to continue in December as well. However, growth numbers for 4QFY10 may not look so great as the company had done well during 4QFY09 and thus the higher base effect will kick in by the next quarter. Maruti is currently trading marginally higher on the bourses.