Benchmark indices closed higher for the fourth consecutive session today led by auto, bank, metal, realty and oil and gas stocks.
Sensex reclaimed the crucial 60,000-mark as investors hoped to ease Covid-related restrictions at the earliest given the less seriousness of the Omicron variant.
The BSE Sensex rose 367 points (up 0.6%) at the closing bell.
Meanwhile, NSE Nifty closed with a gain of 120 points (up 0.7%).
Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance were among them Today’s Top Beneficiaries,
On the other hand, Tech Mahindra and Infosys were the top losers today.
At the time of writing the news, SGX Nifty was trading 98 points higher at 17,973.
The BSE Midcap index closed up 0.4%, while the BSE Smallcap index closed down 0.1%.
Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the banking sector, finance sector and metals sector showing most buying interest.
On the other hand, selling pressure was witnessed in IT stocks.
Shares of Gujarat Fluorochemicals and Tata Communications today touched their 52-week highs.
Asian stock markets today closed with a mixed trend.
The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite ended 1.6% and 1% lower, respectively. Nikkei closed with a gain of 0.1% in today’s trading session.
US stock futures are trading on a flat note today, with Dow futures trading up 40 points.
Rupee is trading at 74.36 against US Dollar.
Gold prices are trading on a flat note today for latest contract on MCX 47,960 per 10 grams.
In news from the engineering sector, Nelco was one of the top trending stocks today.
Nelco upgraded by 5% After 751 the company got a contract from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for a turnkey project worth more than 400 m
The scope of the project includes supply, commissioning and maintenance of ONGC’s Captive Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) based network. This network will be used to augment the communication infrastructure of ONGC’s offshore sites in western India.
Nelco will upgrade ONGC’s existing Ku band captive network as per its requirement, which will enable voice and data communication between ONGC’s offshore installations and onshore locations.
The scope of the project includes upgradation of existing Ku band satellite communication infrastructure, as well as RF and antenna systems at all locations and other necessary electronic systems. The system will enable connectivity to offshore platforms, drilling rigs, specialized vessels and onshore locations.
PJ Nath, MD & CEO, Nelco said,
Nelco’s vast experience in construction and operation and maintenance of large communication networks will help us in completing this project successfully.
We will leverage best-in-class technologies to fully meet ONGC’s world-class communication needs, which is critical to their operations.
Nelco, a part of the Tata Group, is a satellite communication (SATCOM or VSAT) service provider in India, providing highly reliable data connectivity solutions across the country, primarily for the enterprise sector.
The share price of Nelco on BSE rose 5% at the end of the day.
Moving on to the news of the energy sector…
BPCL privatization may be pushed to next financial year
Two officials aware of the development said that the privatization of state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) may go ahead in the next financial year as the sale process has not progressed at the desired pace.
“The financial bids have not been called yet, and we have only three months left. Given BPCL’s borrowings, it will require approval from lenders (long-term agreements have a clause that requires lenders’ approval for promoter changes), which will take a few months’, said one of the two executives tracking sales.
Government’s plan to make records 1.8 tn from disinvestment this year now depends entirely on the success of Initial Public Offering (IPO) India’s largest insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).
Still, the target is likely to be elusive as the Center plans to increase 600 billion from BPCL privatization alone, or more than a third of its overall disinvestment target.
The government had on April 10 last year given bidders access to the data of BPCL.
So far, billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Group, private equity firm Apollo Global and I Squared Capital’s ThinkGas arm have shown interest in buying the government’s 52.98% stake.
The government had initially targeted to call the financial bids by August 2021 and sign the sale and purchase agreement by September to complete the deal by March 2022.
But the COVID-19 pandemic changed the investment climate for energy companies, which were already facing challenges such as volatile energy prices, low production and high write-offs due to capital expenditure.
As a result, the government was forced to extend the time limit for BPCL’s initial expression of interest by four times.
BPCL share price rose 2.2% on BSE.
Coming to PSUs, take a look at the chart below which shows the performance of BSE PSU Index vis–vis BSE Sensex over the years.
see full image
As can be seen from the chart above, In the last decade, 100 rupees invested in BSE PSU index will fall 80, compared to almost 3x gains for the Sensex.
Richa Agarwal, Principal Smallcap Analyst at Equitymaster writes about PSU stocks in an edition. Profit Hunter:
However, it would be foolish to paint all PSUs with the same brush. There are exceptions in this area, which put their personal peers to shame.
In a recent editorial, I shared an opportunity in a PSU stock that is riding and enabling an irreversible megatrend – digitization.
This article is syndicated from Equitymaster.com
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