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FPI Equity Inflows in February, Licensing for Power Sector, and Buzzing Stocks Today
Mon, 22 Feb Pre-Open

Indian share markets ended on a negative note on Friday.

Benchmark indices witnessed volatility for fourth straight session led by losses in banks, metal and auto stocks. Weakness in global markets also weighed on investor sentiment.

At the closing bell on Friday, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 435 points. The NSE Nifty ended down by 137 points.

Amid heavy selling in financial services, private banks and automobile stocks, the Sensex fell as much as 700 points in intraday trade.

IndusInd Bank was among the top gainers.

ONGC, on the other hand, was among the top losers.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended down by 1.7% and 0.8%, respectively.

All sectoral indices ended on a negative note with stocks in the automobile sector, metal sector and banking sector witnessing most of the selling pressure.

Shares of Tejas Networks and New India Assurance hit their respective 52-week highs on Friday.

In news from the commodity space, domestic gold and silver prices continued to decline on Friday last week as global gold rates also softened amid rising US bond yields.

On MCX, gold futures slipped 0.4% to Rs 45,861 per 10 grams to near the lowest level in 8 months, while silver futures fell 1% to Rs 68,479 per kg.

Gold prices have dropped sharply since the beginning of this year with rates dropping over 2% in the last one week.

In one of his videos, Vijay Bhambwani explains why the bull market in gold has not come to an end and why he is still bullish on the yellow metal.

Vijay has put out a 2021 target of Rs 60,000/ 10 gm for gold.

Should the recent correction in gold worry you? Is the gold bull market under threat? Vijay answers these questions in the video.

You can watch the same here: The Gold Bull Market is Still On

In another recent video, Vijay Bhambwani covers an aspect of trading which you won't find on the internet but is very important.

It's about what effect your lunchtime has on your trading profits.

Tune in below to find out more:

Top Stocks in Focus Today

Engineers India (EIL) and Oil India will be among the top buzzing stocks today.

State-run Oil India and Engineers India will jointly bid for acquiring Bharat Petroleum Corporation's (BPCL's) 61.65% stake in Numaligarh Refinery (NRL).

In a statement, Engineers India said that Oil India would be the leader in the consortium, while EIL would take a minority share.

Meanwhile, Oil India said, "the bid will be submitted through a formal process. The exact percentage of the stake of OIL and EIL will depend on the extent of Right of First Offer (ROFO), to be exercised by the Government of Assam that already holds 12.35% stake in NRL."

Engineers India said the stake buy enables the Navratna PSU, under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, to diversify its business into downstream oil and gas operations.

The stake purchase is being seen in light of the Centre's attempt to divest its shareholding in BPCL and privatise the Maharatna public sector undertaking (PSU).

Earlier, the Assam state government had red flagged any suggestions to privatise NRL and had also put in a bid to acquire a larger share of the mini ratna PSU.

BPCL currently holds a 61.65% stake in NRL, Oil India holds 26%, and the Assam government owns 12.35%.

IndiaMart InterMesh share price will also be in focus as the company plans to raise Rs 11 billion through a qualified institutional placement (QIP).

The floor price of the QIP has been fixed at Rs 9,065.6 apiece. The company at its discretion may announce a discount of 5% on the floor price.

The company's board in its meeting on January 18, 2021, had approved fundraising through the issue of equity shares or any other permissible mode. As of December 31, 2020, the company had cash and investments worth Rs 11.3 billion on its books, its investor presentation showed.

FPIs Pump US$ 33.8 Billion into Indian Equities till February 15

In news from the financial markets, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have pumped in a whopping US$ 33.8 billion into Indian equities and debt till February 15 this fiscal year - the highest since FY15 when it was nearly US$ 46 billion, taking their net outstanding investments to a record US$ 592.5 billion.

Of the total FPI assets of US$ 592.5 billion, US$ 537.4 billion were in equities and US$ 51.38 billion in debt, according to the data collated by Care Ratings.

Of the US$ 33.8 billion inflows this fiscal so far, as much as US$ 8.4 billion came in December alone.

The maximum holding is in financial services sector at US$ 191.3 billion, followed by IT (US$ 76.1 billion) and oil & gas (US$ 50 billion).

In FY20, net inflows were at negative US$ 3 billion after the bloodbath in the markets following the announcement of the coronavirus as a global pandemic in March last year.

How the FPI trend continues going forward remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on the latest developments from this space.

Government to Free Electricity Distribution Sector from Licensing

In news from the power sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government will free the electricity distribution sector from licensing.

Shares of power companies rallied last week on the back of above news with shares of Bharat Heavy Electrical (BHEL) and Torrent Power witnessing huge buying interest.

Government officials held a series of meetings with industry captains and associations on the proposed legislative amendments to delicense power distribution and other announcements made in the Union budget.

"Throughout the country, we are taking a look at electricity supply and the distribution network to allay the problems with them," Modi told senior executives from the power sector on a virtual platform. "For this, a discom-related policy and regulatory framework is in the works," he said.

Modi addressed industry executives during a virtual consultation power and renewable energy minister R K Singh held with promoters and top executives of companies with large presence in power distribution, including Reliance Infrastructure's Anil Ambani, Torrent Group's Jinal Mehta, Tata Power managing director Praveer Sinha, Adani Transmission managing director Anil Sardana, CESC chief executive officer Debashish Banerjee and Association of Power Producers director general Ashok Khurana.

The government is taking steps to ensure level-playing field for state-owned electricity distribution companies and dissuade cherry picking of supply areas by private companies when the sector is delicensed, power secretary Alok Kumar said during his first media interaction on Thursday.

Meanwhile, speaking to industry executives, Modi said the proposed performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for high-efficiency solar photovoltaic modules will lead to investments of more than Rs 140 billion to create manufacturing capacity of 10,000 MW.

We will keep you updated on all the developments from this space. Stay tuned.

And to know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

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