Thursday March 8, 03:00 PM
Firm upmove... |
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By Equitymaster.com
The indices continued to gain strength during the previous hour of trade. While buying activity is being witnessed across sectors, stocks from the FMCG, steel, banking and pharma sectors are leading the rally. The buying interest is broadbased as the advance to decline ratio is poised at 9 to 1 on the NSE Nifty.
The BSE Sensex is trading at 12,948 (up 367 points) while the NSE Nifty is trading at 3,738 (up 111 points). The rupee is trading at 44.39 to the dollar.
As per a leading business daily, power generation major, NTPC is planning to float a subsidiary for its international operations. It has chalked out its global foray by building a 700 MW gas-based power plant in Nigeria and a 500 MW thermal plant in Sri Lanka. NTPC is likely to sign an agreement with the Nigerian government for the US$ 700 m project within a month. The Nigerian government has agreed to provide gas for the project and the electricity generated from the plant will be sold to state-run utilities there. The Sri Lankan project will involve an investment of US$ 500 m and would be implemented by a 50:50 joint venture formed by NTPC and CEB. While all major power stocks are currently trading strong, NTPC (up 2%) and Reliance (RELI.BO, news) Energy (up 1%) are leading the pack of gainers.
Banking stocks including SBI (up 3%), ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO, news) (up 3%) and HDFC Bank (HDBK.BO, news) (up 5%) have been in favour today. The country's largest mortgage finance company, HDFC, has raised its prime-lending rate (PLR) by 75 basis points to 100 basis points. While rates for customers seeking fixed loans have risen by 100 basis points, existing and new borrowers on floating rates will pay 75 basis points more. Since floating rates are benchmarked to the PLR, all borrowers with floating rate loans will now pay 75 basis points more. The rate hikes have been exercised due to the increase in the cost of funds for the institution. The rise in the home loan rates could temper some of the demand for housing loans across the industry.
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