Sensex ends flat for the week

Fri, 28 Sep Closing

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Although buying interest in select auto, commodity and pharma stocks helped the indices in Indian equity markets top gainers in Asia today, the indices ended flat week on week. While the BSE-Sensex closed higher by around 183 points, gains on the NSE-Nifty came in at around 54 points. The BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices also gained around 1% each.

Asian indices across the board closed higher today while Europe is trading in the negative currently. The rupee was placed at Rs 52.68 to the dollar at the time of writing.

As per a business daily, the government is planning to list Coal India's subsidiaries South-eastern Coalfields (SECL) and Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL). Of late the government has been pushing for reforms in the coal sector and is also favouring restructuring of Coal Indi's businesses. The Ministry has called for fresh meet to resolve fuel supply agreements (FSA) logjam and will review progress on coal block auctions. Meanwhile, Coal India, which came under attack for falling output from its mines, has decided to modernise its existing machineries. It is also looking at outsourcing its greenfield open-cast mines and washeries to experienced private players to achieve the 12th Plan production targets. The company has set a target to mine 615 mt of coal in the terminal year of 12th Plan (2016-17), up from 436.10 mt in 2012-13.

Larsen and Toubro Construction (L&T Construction), the wholly owned subsidiary of Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has bagged orders worth Rs 21 bn across various business segments in September 2012. In the buildings & factories segment, the company has bagged new orders worth Rs 16.5 bn. A major order has been received for the construction of multistoried residential towers in Mumbai from a leading developer. New order has been also been secured for design and construction of a hospital building and additional works from ongoing projects across India. Further, L&T Construction has secured orders aggregating Rs 4.8 bn from various ongoing projects in the infrastructure space.

L&T's management has reiterated its guidance of 15-20% growth in both revenues and order inflows for FY13. It plans to raise its revenues from the international operations amidst slowdown in the domestic markets. It may be noted that the strategy is progressing well with the company looking to further improve its market share in Middle East.