Banking boosts Indian equity markets

Tue, 9 Oct 09:30 am

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Barring Japan (down 0.2%), the major Asian stock markets have opened the day on a firm note with stock markets in China (up 2.0%) and Hong Kong (up 1.1%) leading the pack of gainers. The Indian equity market indices have opened the day on a positive note as well. All sectoral indices opened in green led by banking and metal stocks.

The Sensex today is up by around 140 points (0.7%), while the NSE-Nifty is up by around 51 points (0.9%). Mid and small cap stocks are trading in the green with the BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices up by around 0.7% and 0.6% respectively. The rupee is trading at Rs 52.27 to the US dollar.

Telecom stocks have opened the day on a mixed note with AGC Networks and Tata Teleservices leading the gains. However, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular opened in red. As per a leading financial daily, Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has agreed to a proposal to charge mobile phone carriers a one-time fee for their existing second-generation (2G) airwave holdings. The fees will be based on a price to be determined by an upcoming auction. It will be charged on airways beyond 4.4 mega hertz at the auction-determined price for the remaining validity of the companies' licence periods .The move is likely to affect older carriers including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone's Indian unit. These companies were excluded from the Supreme Court order to revoke permits in 2008 sale and are not required to bid in the auction. In case the Cabinet goes ahead with the proposal, then Bharti Airtel may have to pay Rs 42 bn to Rs 43 bn and Ideal Cellular may have to shell out Rs 20bn to Rs 22 bn. As per telecom minister, the Cabinet has finalized recommendations on the onetime fee for telecom companies and will take a call on October 16, 2012.

Energy stocks have opened the day on a firm note with Essar Oil and Castrol leading the gains. As per a leading financial daily, Petronet LNG (PLNG) has allowed Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) to annually use 2.5 million tonnes (MT) capacity at its Dahej expansion project for importing the fuel. It is important to note here that Petronet operates a 10-MT a year Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at Dahej and plans to expand it by 5 MT per annum in 2015. As per the sources, other companies including Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) are also in talks to use the remaining 2.5 MT capacity that PLNG plans to add. Petronet may also join GAIL to operate LNG assets that the latter is considering buying from Spanish firm Repsol.