Mid, smallcap stocks are in limelight

Mon, 4 Jul 01:30 pm

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Indian stock marketcontinued to trade in the green over the last two hours. Stocks from the realty, auto, and banking are the main gainers while those from the capital goods and metal space are trading weak.

The BSE-Sensex is trading up by 48 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 19 points above the dotted line. However, the BSE Midcap and BSE Small cap indices are up by 0.8% and 1.0% respectively. The rupee is trading at 44.41 to the US dollar.

Steel stocks are currently trading mixed with Toyo Rolls, Tata Sponge and Bhushan Steel leading the pack of gainers. However, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel & Power are trading weak. As per a leading financial daily, Tata Steel's group director of procurement has stated that in the next few years, steel prices would be supported by scarce supply of good quality coking coal. It is important to note that prices of hard coking coal, a key ingredient for making steel, have surged to about US$ 300 a tonne from about US$ 200 a tonne a year ago because of logistical bottlenecks and restricted supply due to flooding which hit top producer Australia earlier this year.

He said while coking coal in the long term will go up, the level is hard to predict. However, he believes that the situation will be better in the next five years. He said that while lower grade of coking coal can be used where assets are not fully utilized, it affects the production process adversely.

Power stocks are trading mixed as well led by Reliance Infrastructure, Coal India and Neyveli Lignite. NTPC and Torrent Power are trading in the red. As per a leading financial daily, NTPC will submit a detailed mining plan to win back five mines recently de-allocated by the ministry. The Government had earlier deallocated mines in Kerandari (with 228 million tonnes of reserves), Chatti Bariatu (243 mt), Brahmini and Chichro and Patsimal. The company's Chairman has apprised coal minister of the difficulties faced in developing the coal blocks. The coal minister has shown consideration towards the huge investments made to develop coal mines. He has asked the company to provide detailed mining plans. If these are found workable and without any loophole, the ministry could review the decision to de-allocate. The company will come up with specific mine development targets for the next two years.

With 15,000 MW of capacities coming up, the company is heavily dependent on de allocated mines. It has plans to invest about Rs 100 bn to produce 50 million tonnes of coal every year from 2013.