Indian share markets open in green

Mon, 31 Dec 09:30 am

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The major Asian stock markets have opened the day on a mixed note with key indices in China (up 1.1%), Indonesia (up 0.8%) and Japan (up 0.7%) leading the gains. However, the stock markets in Singapore (down 0.8%) and Malaysia (down 0.3%) have opened on a weak note. The Indian share market indices have opened the day on a positive note. The sectoral indices have opened mixed with stocks in the realty and oil and gas space leading the gains. However, stocks in FMCG and banking space witnessed selling pressure.

The Sensex today is up by around 16 points (0.1%), while the NSE- Nifty is up by around 1 point (0.01%). Mid and small cap stocks have opened in the green with the BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices up by around 0.2% and 0.5% respectively. The rupee is trading at Rs 54.80 to the US dollar.

Oil & Gas stocks have opened the day mainly in the green with Reliance Industries Ltd and Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd leading the pack of gainers. However, Gujarat State Petronet Ltd and Jindal Drill Ltd are witnessing selling pressure. As per a leading financial daily, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will be reworking its strategy to increase domestic natural gas production. In the wake of falling gas supplies from the Krishna Godavari basin (KG D6) basin, ONGC plans to speed up the overall activity at its block KG-DWN-98/2. It plans to start commercial production by as early as 2017-2018. It will do so by drilling around 18 wells in the 11 discoveries it has made so far in the KG basin. The cost of drilling these wells is estimated to be Rs 185 bn and is likely to be funded from internal accruals. ONGC expects to initiate production with around 30 million standard cubic meters of gas per day (mmscmd) beginning early 2014. It has already identified some 87 billion cubic meters (bcm) of resources in the block. Post the completion of appraisal wells, it plans to set up the infrastructure to distribute the produced gas from the offshore fields.

Cement stocks have opened the mainly in green with Chettinad Cements and Heidelberg Cement (I) Ltd leading the pack of gainers. As per a leading financial daily, cement major Ambuja Cements Ltd is planning to invest Rs 20 bn for capacity expansion in Rajasthan and northern regions. It aims to add 5 million tonne (MT) capacity to the company's total production through proposed project at Rajasthan. The company has decided to increase capacity of its Sankrail grinding unit in West Bengal to 2.4 MT at an investment of around Rs 3.3 bn. It also plans to add 1.5 MT per annum at Gujarat and 1 MT bulk terminal at Mangalore to improve distribution. Currently, the total cement capacity of the company is 18.5 MT.