Barometer gauges enter green zone in early noon session

Barometer gauges erased all losses and entered the green terrain in the early noon session on the back of buying in Telecom, Oil & Gas and PSU stocks. Domestic sentiments were buoyed as Brent crude slipped on Tuesday easing concerns over widening current account deficit and inflation. Strengthening of rupee on announcement by RBI about purchase of the government securities under Open Market Operations, also boosted investors’ sentiments. Some support also came with Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that financial inclusion has become a reality for 1.3 billion Indians as he pitched India as a favourite investment destination at the Fintech Festival. However, gains remained capped due to selling by investors in IT, TECK and Healthcare stocks. Report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 494.95 crore on November 13, 2018 also kept a lid on the gains. Meanwhile, as per a report October Wholesale price index (WPI) inflation came at 5.28%.

On the global front, Asian markets were exhibiting mixed trend after a mixed bag of data on China’s economy that followed a topsy-turvy session for U.S. shares. Oil extended its rout, while the pound stabilized after its recent bounce. Back home, power stocks remain in focus with Power Secretary A K Bhalla stating that the power ministry will bring its second round for 2,500 Mw capacities to give relief to stressed power assets, buoyed by a good response for the first tender of mid-term (3 years) power purchase agreement auction. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35169.23, up by 24.74 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 35042.31 and 35351.88. There were 19 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.59%, while Small cap index was up by 0.21%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.31%, Oil & Gas up by 2.22%, PSU up by 1.46%, Energy up by 1.15% and Consumer Disc up by 0.99%, while IT down by 2.87%, TECK down by 2.02%, Healthcare down by 1.07%, Capital Goods down by 0.34% and Industrials down by 0.28% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 4.03%, Hindustan Unilever up by 3.16%, Asian Paints up by 2.90%, Indusind Bank up by 2.40% and Tata Steel up by 2.32%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 4.55%, Infosys down by 3.21%, TCS down by 2.91%, Wipro down by 1.55% and Axis Bank down by 0.97% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, finding a lot of interest for the first tender of mid-term (3 years) power purchase agreement (PPA) auction, Power Secretary A K Bhalla has said that his ministry is planning another round for 2,500 Mw capacities to provide respite to stressed power assets. He noted that a PPA is a prerequisite for getting coal supplies for power plants. He pointed out that power sector is facing stress due to coal shortage and other issues and many power projects are starving for coal in the absence of PPAs.

Bhalla has stated that the government's scheme to auction 2,500 MW medium-term PPAs evoked good response and PPAs for 1,900 Mw capacities were signed under the scheme last month. He said that “We did not have difference between fixed cost and variable cost. There was no escalation (of tariff). Those points will be discussed. Whatever (issues) stakeholders have raised, will be discussed.” Besides, he said that Ministry of Power in April 2018 had issued guidelines for a pilot scheme to facilitate aggregation of procurement of power (2500 MW for 03 years) from commissioned coal based power plants through competitive bidding.

Power Secretary has said that the PFC Consulting conducted the bid process for selection of capacity on DEEP e-bidding Portal from different projects. He also said that subsequent to the bidding process, tariff was discovered as Rs 4.24 per unit and projects with aggregate capacity of 1,900 MW were declared successful bidders. On the under utilisation of gas-based power plants, he said “The PLF (capacity utilisation) of gas-based plants is less than 25 percent. So you can estimate that at what capacity they are running because of less availability of domestic gas.”

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10594.50, up by 12.00 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 10559.25 and 10651.60. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HPCL up by 8.35%, Indian Oil Corp. up by 7.39%, BPCL up by 7.21%, Zee Entertainment up by 4.86% and Bharti Airtel up by 3.95%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 4.61%, Tech Mahindra down by 4.51%, HCL Tech. down by 3.61%, Infosys down by 3.24% and GAIL India down by 3.19% were the top losers.

Asian markets were exhibiting mixed trend; Straits Times decreased 19.23 points or 0.63% to 3,034.37, KOSPI declined 7.12 points or 0.34% to 2,064.11, Hang Seng plunged 143.220 points or 0.56% to 25,649.65 and Shanghai Composite was down 15.53 points or 0.59% to 2,639.35.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted increased 16.04 points or 0.16% to 9,791.88, Nikkei 225 advanced 35.96 points or 0.16% to 21,846.48 and Jakarta Composite was up 51.56 points or 0.88% to 5,886.76.