Sensex Ends in Red on Diwali Day; Bank & Metal Stocks Fall

Thu, 19 Oct Closing

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The hour-long auspicious Muhurat trading session ended on a weak note today. While the BSE Sensex closed lower by about 194 points, the NSE Nifty ended lower by about 64 points. Meanwhile, BSE Mid Cap ended lower by 0.3% and BSE Small Cap finished up by 0.1% respectively. Losses were largely seen in bank stocks, metal stocks and PSU stocks.

Gold prices were trading down by Rs 250 to Rs 30,750 per 10grams on the eve of Diwali.

Rupee was trading at Rs 65.07 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 51.61 at the time of writing.

Global stocks mostly fell after data showed that China's economic growth slowed slightly and tensions rose over the Spanish region of Catalonia's bid for independence. Asian stock markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Nikkei 225 gained 0.40%, while the Hang Seng & the Shanghai Composite fell 1.78% and 0.34% respectively. European markets are lower today with shares in Germany off the most. The DAX is down 0.64% while France's CAC 40 is off 0.62% and London's FTSE 100 is lower by 0.41%.

In news from cement sector, UltraTech Cement Ltd reported a 28.3% drop in standalone net profit to Rs 4.31 billion in the quarter ended September from a year earlier, hurt by higher interest outgo and fuel and freight expenses.

The firm said power and fuel expense was up 26% from the year ago period to Rs 925/tonne, due to higher pet coke and coal prices, while freight and forwarding expense rose 5% to Rs 1,089/tonne due to increase in diesel price.

Revenue rose 6.1% from the year-ago period to Rs 65.71 billion. UltraTech said sales volume jumped 18% during the quarter from the year-ago period to 13.14 million tonnes, which included 0.73 million tonnes of exports.

UltraTech raised Rs 130 billion in rupee term loans at an interest rate slightly below 8% to fund the acquisition. The company completed the acquisition of Jaiprakash Associates Ltd's 21.2 million tonnes per annum cement capacity in the first quarter of financial year 2017-18.

In another development, ACC net profit more than doubled in the September quarter of Rs. 1.82 billion from Rs 900 million in the year ago period. This was on the back of lower base, restocking of cement by dealers post demonetisation and better realisation.

Revenue from operations was up 10% at Rs 31.17 billion. This strong result has been achieved through an increased focus on premium products.

Cement sales of the company increased 18% during the quarter. Premium product volumes grew by 18% YoY.

The company expects demand for cement and related products will stay on course in the coming quarter spurred by the government's increased spending on infrastructure, particularly roads, highways and affordable housing.

Acc share price and Ultratech Cement share price finished the trading hour down by 1.6% and 1.9% on the BSE.

In news from energy sector, as per an article in The Economic Times, ONGC soon invite bids from oilfield service providers to enhance output from some of its ageing fields under a long-term contract whereby winners will get a predetermined fee for existing and incremental production.

Under this proposed model, the service provider will get fee for every incremental unit of oil or gas produced as well as for maintaining the 'baseline' production at the field, an executive said. Those seeking the lowest fee will win the bid.

As per the reports, ONGC executive committee would shortly finalise the relative weightage for the two fees -- for incremental output and for maintaining the 'baseline'.

The contracts will be for 15 years or more and the service providers will have to provide the capital and incur operational expenditure to raise output from 'baseline' production, which will be decided by ONGC alone.

Along with this, the government also working on a production enhancement policy that would give away control of many of ONGC's older fields to private players if they promise to raise production.

ONGC share price finished the day down by 1.2% on the BSE.

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