Sensex rises 1,000 points led by banks, financial companies; Asian Paints, HDFC Top Gainers

The Nikkei is up 3.2% while the Shanghai Composite is up 2.6%. Hang Seng was the biggest gainer and gained a whopping 5.6%.

Wall Street indices on US stock markets tumbled in the afternoon and ended higher after the Federal Reserve announced interest rate hikes for the first time since 2018.

The Dow Jones rose 1.5% while the Nasdaq rose 3.8%.

The US Fed launched a high-risk effort on Wednesday to contain the worst inflation since the early 1980s, raising its benchmark short-term interest rate and prompting six additional rate hikes this year.

Central bank policymakers expect inflation to end 2022 at 4.3%, far higher than the Fed’s 2% annual target.

Back home after the SGX Nifty trend, Indian stock markets opened on a strong note.

BSE Sensex is trading up 1,004 points. Meanwhile, NSE Nifty is trading with a gain of 278 points.

Asian Paints and HDFC are among the top gainers today.

On the other hand, ONGC is the biggest loser today.

In line with the rise in the benchmark, the broader markets also extended profits.

BSE Mid Cap Index and BSE Small Cap Index are trading with gains of 1.4% and 1.3% respectively.

All sectoral indices are trading in the green with the consumer durables sector, banking sector and finance sector being the top picks.

Shares of Timken India and Trent hit 52-week high today.

Meanwhile, Voltas rose over 4% after the company announced a joint venture with Hailey International (Hong Kong) to manufacture and sell inverter compressors for room air conditioners and others.

Rupee is trading at 75.95 against US Dollar.

Gold prices are trading up 0.8% 51,544 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading higher by 1.6%. 68,354 per kg.

Crude oil prices rose, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said as a drop in oil demand due to higher prices would not cut off Russian oil supplies.

In news from the construction and engineering sector, Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) is one of the top buzzing stocks today.

Rail Vikas Nigam on Wednesday said its board has approved interim dividend for the financial year 2021-2022. The company in a regulatory filing declared an interim dividend of 1.58 per equity share 10 each.

RVNL has fixed March 25, 2022, the record date for interim dividend, while the payment for the same will be completed on or before April 14, 2022.

RVNL was incorporated in January 2003 as a 100% owned PSU of the Ministry of Railways with the objectives of mobilizing extra budgetary resources and implementation of projects related to capacity building and augmentation of rail infrastructure on fast track basis.

To know more, see RVNL dividend payment history,

In news from the automobile sector, Maruti Suzuki is looking to produce over half a million CNG-powered vehicles in the upcoming financial year amid increasing consumer preference due to a sharp rise in the price of motor fuels.

The country’s largest carmaker plans to produce 600,000 CNG vehicles in fiscal year 2023, more than half of the one million CNG vehicles sold in the local market in the past two decades.

The company achieved the milestone of registering total sales of one million CNG vehicles earlier this week on Tuesday.

Company’s chairman RC Bhargava said that till Electric vehicles (EVs) become mainstreamIt is important to look at alternative fuels to reduce carbon emissions.

CNG emits 20% less CO2 than petrol. Actually, Bio CNG is carbon negative. The low cost (of CNG) makes it a very good option, especially for small car buyers.

In the current financial year itself, Maruti Suzuki expects CNG sales to grow by almost 50% to 235,000-240,000 units. The company has pending orders for an additional 115,000 units.

The share price of Maruti Suzuki is currently trading with a gain of 1.4 percent.

Moving to news from the EV space, Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday expressed optimism about the adoption of electric and alternative fuel-powered vehicles, saying that the scenario will change in the next five years.

Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways said that the sales of petrol and diesel vehicles will decline day by day while the sales of electric and alternative fuel vehicles will increase.

He cited an example that if a customer has to choose between an EV and a petrol car, where the cost is the same. 15 lakhs, with a fuel cost of 50,000 (Petrol) and 2,000 (for EV) so one will go for more affordable option.

The minister dismissed the issue of lack of EV charging infrastructure and said that in a year the day will come when EV charging system will be everywhere including all offices.

The minister acknowledged that the cost of batteries is a major challenge.

Lithium ion is a major challenge at present. We don’t have lithium ion. We manufacture around 81 per cent of the batteries here in India. Now Lithium Ion is available in the world. The government is in the process of acquiring some mines.

We will keep you informed about the latest developments in this field. stay tuned.

Coming to EVs, take a look at the chart below which shows the massive opportunity in two wheeler EVs.

Here’s what Richa Agarwal, Smallcap Analyst at Equitymaster wrote in the recent edition of Profit Hunter:

In the last five years, two-wheeler sales in India stood at around 20 million units per year. Now the sector is cyclical and has been bearish for some time. So let’s consider a moderate growth of 5% for the next 10 years.

By 2030, we are expecting 2-wheeler sales of 30 million units. Even if it has a third of EV sales, that’s 10 million electric 2-wheelers per year.

In the last 2 years, the average electric 2-wheeler sales were 1.5 lakh units. From 1.5 lakh to 1 crore, 2-wheeler EV has 66 times the opportunity.

This is an annual growth rate of 52% over the next 10 years. It’s an almost vertical growth opportunity.

(This article is syndicated from) equitymaster.com,