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Sensex Ends Firm on Last Session of 2016; FMCG & Power Stocks Outperform
Fri, 30 Dec Closing

The Indian share markets continued with the positive momentum and headed for a firm close for the week. At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex closed higher by 260 points, whereas the NSE Nifty finished higher by 82 points. The <>S&P BSE Midcap ended up by 1.1% while the S&P BSE Small Cap finished up by 0.8%. All sectoral indices ended the day on a positive note. FMCG, and power stocks witnessed the maximum buying interest.

Asian markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng gained 0.96% and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.24%. The Nikkei 225 lost 0.16%. European markets are lower today with shares in London off the most. The FTSE 100 is down 0.21% while France's CAC 40 is off 0.20% and Germany's DAX is lower by 0.19%.

The rupee was trading at Rs 67.95 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 54.01 at the time of writing.

According to an article in The Economic Times, the government of India is set to switch gears in 2017 to make India a hub for one of the largest installations of clean energy sources by 2022. The dedicated transmission lines, part of the so-called green corridor project, will transmit 20 gigawatts of power capacity from 34 solar parks across 21 states.

In 2017-18, the government is eyeing 20,450 MW power capacity addition from renewables, including 15,000 MW (solar), 4,600 MW (wind), 750 MW (biomass) and 100 MW from small hydro power (of up to 25 MW). Moreover, the increased use of indigenous renewable resources is expected to reduce India's dependence on expensive imported fossil fuel.

Scaling up of rooftop solar programme, scheme to encourage domestic manufacturing of solar panels and making wind power affordable through auction of sites all fill up a packed 2017.

The cost of production of electricity through utilization of solar energy is outpacing other alternatives. This has happened on the back of the cheaper cost accrued in investing in the installation of solar panels than a comparable investment in coal, natural gas or other options, according to a new World Economic Forum (WEF) report.

India's total solar capacity is 10GW and the government plans to take it to 17GW by 31 March 2017. Here are the targets of the government for renewable energy generation for the next three years.

Renewable Energy Generation Target Over Next Three Years

Notably, just last month, news emerged that India has the largest solar power plant at a single location (Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu) with a capacity of 648MW, which has the capacity to power 150,000 homes.

Moving on to the news from stocks in realty sector. As per an article in the Financial Express, mortgage companies like Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC), Indiabulls Housing Finance and DHFL may slash rates by 25-50 basis points in a few weeks as they are under pressure to push growth amid sluggish demand.

Reportedly, demonetisation has helped cut funding costs and this would help them pass on benefits of lower borrowing costs to customers. Moreover, demand for homes and home loans slumped after the government announced on 8 November that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes would cease to be legal tender.

Housing sales did rise in the first three quarters of 2016 on positives like tax sops in the budget, new real estate regulatory law and easing of interest rate by about 1 per cent, but transactions dried up post demonetisation, dragging the overall numbers down for 2016.

The realty space remained weak even this year as housing sales fell on low demand and adverse impact of junking of old cash, but developers expect recovery from the second half of 2017 (Subcription Required).

Realty Stocks ended the day up by 1.1%.

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