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Oil and Gas stocks drag markets lower
Thu, 10 Oct 11:30 am

After a positive start, the Indian stock markets are trading flat in the morning session. The down move has been largely due to losses in oil and gas and banking stocks.

The BSE-Sensex is down 30 points and the NSE-Nifty is trading down 5 points. The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up 0.7% and the BSE Small Cap index is trading up 0.5%. The Rupee is trading at 62.15 to the US Dollar.

Power stocks are trading mixed today. KSK Energy and Indiabulls Power are among the gainers; while Tata Power and JSW Energy are among the losers. India's largest power company National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has announced that it has commissioned unit-6 of the 500 MW Rihand Super Thermal Power Project. With this, the total installed capacity has increased to 41,684 MW. The total installed capacity of Rihand has now reached 3000 MW (6x500MW). The states that will benefit from this plant are Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.NTPC accounted for 27.4% of India's total power generation during FY13 with 18.4% of India's total installed capacity. NTPC had achieved its highest ever capacity addition in FY13 with an addition of 4170 MW. It operates 15 coal based and 7 gas based power stations along with 7 joint venture-subsidiary power projects located across India. The company has plans to become a 128,000 MW plus company by 2032. NTPC is trading up 1.2% today.

Steel stocks are trading mixed today. Gujarat Mineral Development (GMDC) and Tata Steel are leading the gainers; while Maharashtra Seamless and JSW Steel are leading the losers. Tata Steel is trading up by 1.8% today. According to a leading business daily, in addition to its plan to raise US$ 1 bn through a foreign bond issue, Tata Steel also plans to raise another US$ 1.2 bn by selling part of its stakes in other Tata group companies. Tata steel holds 54.4% stake in Tata sponge and Tayo Rolls. Also it holds 5.7% stake in Tata motors and 4.4% stake in Titan Company.

Tata steel wants to raise these funds to retire its heavy debt of Rs 660 bn; which is largely a result of its acquisition of Corus in 2007. The company has already been offloading stakes in various group companies such as Titan, Sila Eastern and Wuxi Ltd (China) to pay off its debt. Tata Steel is trading up 2% today.

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