Indian equity markets remain in red

Thu, 4 Apr 11:30 am

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Indian equity markets have continued to trade in red in the previous two hours of trade. Barring the auto and healthcare sectors, all other sectors have faced selling pressures.

The BSE-Sensex is down by 130 points and NSE-Nifty is down by 47 points. BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 0.81% while BSE Small Cap index is trading down by 1.04%. The rupee is trading at 54.61 to the US dollar.

Engineering shares are trading on a mixed note with Engineers India and Sanghvi Movers leading the gains while Opto Circuits and TRF Ltd are witnessing the maximum selling pressures. According to a leading financial news medium, Crompton Greaves (CG) along with its consortium partners, Cofely, Fabricom and Iements has been awarded Rs 2.4 bn contract for the construction of an offshore HV substation in the Netherlands from Van Oord Offshore Wind Projects BV. The partners will design, engineer and manufacture the overall electrical system. The delivery will include all electrical engineering work, two step-up power transformers, medium voltage and high voltage Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS), auxiliary transformers, an MV reactor, and the SCADA/control and protection system for the substation. The project is expected to be completed by August 2015. The 43 wind turbines will be expected to generate green electricity for nearly 150,000 households. This is the sixth large offshore connection project secured by CG since 2008. CG's share is trading up by 0.86%.

All except one mining share, Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India Ltd. (MMTC) (MMTC) Ltd are trading in red. According to a leading business news medium, Coal India's (CIL) subsidiary - Eastern Coalfields (ECL) has registered the highest production and off-take growth in 2012-13. The restructuring of operations in some mines like closing a few small ones and expanding a few existing projects has led to higher production surpassing the target for the year.The production growth for ECL was 10.9% to 33.9 million tonnes (MT), while off-take growth was 16% to 35.8 MT. The expansion at Rajmahal and Sonpur Bazari open cast mines and Khottadih helped to improve productivity. On the other hand, the cumulative production and off-take of all eight subsidiaries of CIL, however, failed to achieve the annual target for 2012-13. The coal output for the year was only 452.5 MT, down by 12 MT, while off-take was lower by 5 MT from the respective targets for FY'13. The Coal Ministry has set a production target of 482 MT and off-take of 492 MT for CIL for the current fiscal (2013-14). CIL's share is trading down by 0.15%.