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Indian Indices Trade Marginally Lower
Wed, 24 Aug 01:30 pm

After opening the day on a flattish note, the Indian stock markets have continued to trade in a similar fashion. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note with stocks from oil & gas and pharmaceutical sectors witnessing buying interest. While, stocks from telecom sector are witnessing selling pressure.

The BSE Sensex is trading marginally lower by 9 points and the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 10 points. While, BSE Small Cap and BSE Mid Cap have moved upwards and are trading higher by 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. The rupee is trading at 67.05 to the US$.

As per an article in Livemint, the railway minister has revised freight rates for coal. The freight rates for transportation of coal is set to get expensive for the plants located at a 200-700 km distance away from the mines.

Whereas, for the plants situated at a distance above 700 km, the freight rates are set to reduce. Reportedly, freight rates for transportation of coal were raised by 8-14% between 200km and 700km and were lowered by 4-13% for distances above 700km.

As coal is largely used in thermal power plants, a spike in the freight cost may in-turn lead to an increase in tariffs. Experts believe that around 60% of the power plants in India need to transport coal for 200-700km, where there is an increase in the freight rate.

This may not bode down well with the power producers who are already facing subdued demand from the State Electricity Board (SEBs). An increase in tariff could possibly act as a dampener for the SEBs to buy power from the power producers.

Tata Power reported its results for the quarter ended June 2016. The company's net profits declined by 76% YoY to Rs 0.7 billion during the quarter. The profits were impacted on the back of a one-off item as well as implementation of new Indian Accounting Standards.

There was a one-off item amounting to Rs 1.2 billion pertaining to its subsidiary Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (CGPL). To add to this, there were regulatory orders worth Rs 0.6 billion pertaining to previous years and adjustments of Rs 1.3 billion related to the new accounting standards which impacted profits.

Total income from operations too declined by 4.8% YoY to Rs 68.3 billion during the quarter. Further, revenue from power, its largest business, fell 5.7% YoY to Rs 61.6 billion during the quarter.

Operational performance of its Ultra Mega Power Plant (UMPP)-CGPL and demand from State Electricity Boards (SEBs) will be the key things to watch out for going forward. The stock is trading up by 1%.

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