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Tech, banks least favoured today
Wed, 18 Nov Closing

After trading range bound in the morning session, Indian equity markets took a sudden downward turn in the afternoon trade and closed deep in the red amid weak international cues. While the BSE-Sensex closed lower by 382 points, the NSE-Nifty closed lower by 106 points. BSE Mid Cap and the BSE Small Cap too closed on a negative note with both the indices ending lower by 0.7% each. IT and banking stocks were the biggest losers today.

Asian stock markets closed mixed. The Nikkei 225 gained 0.09%, while the Shanghai Composite led the Hang Seng lower. They fell 1.01% and 0.34% respectively. European markets are lower today with shares in France off the most. The CAC 40 is down 0.78% while Germany's DAX is off 0.58% and London's FTSE 100 is lower by 0.56%. The rupee was trading at 66.11 against the US$ in the afternoon session.

Food and Tobacco stocks languished in red today with Godfrey Phillips and Tata Global Beverages bearing majority of the brunt. According to a leading financial daily, ITC's fully owned subsidiary - ITC Infotech has entered into a strategic partnership with Ramco Systems. The partnership will enable ITC Infotech to extend its Aviation solution through Ramco's MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) offering, integrated with the latest technology stacks such as Cloud, Mobility and simplified user experience.

The partnership will also facilitate Ramco to expand its footprint across the commercial airlines space and further strengthen its client portfolio across key markets, including North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa and Asia-Pacific.

ITC is a FMCG behemoth with interests in cigarettes, hotels, paperboards and specialty papers, packaging, agri-business, packaged foods and confectionery, information technology, branded apparel, personal care, stationery, safety matches and other FMCG products. In one of our recent editions of '5 Minute Wrap up', we analyzed the five largest FMCG companies - including ITC - based on their earnings quality.

Shares of NTPC ended firm (up 0.5%) after CARE (Credit Analysis and Research) reaffirmed 'AAA' rating to NTPC's long term bank facilities worth Rs 650 bn. The rating continues to take into account the majority ownership by the Government of India, its established position as India's largest power producer with healthy operational efficiency of its plants and the company's geographical diversity of power plants as well as beneficiaries.

Furthermore, as per a Moody's Investor Service report, NTPC is set to benefit from the recently announced debt restructuring program for state-owned power distribution companies (known as Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojna). Government's debt restructuring scheme aims to reduce the debt burden of state-owned distribution companies, by increasing their financial capacity to offtake power. Reportedly, If the debt restructuring scheme was successful, it would boost the utilization rates of NTPC's plants and increase incentive income.

NTPC contributes around 16% of India's conventional installed power generation capacity, and 25% of total power generation. In addition, about 90% of the power generated by NTPC is sold to state-government owned distribution companies.

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