Coal news and updates

Nifty consolidation continues; Coal India up 5%, BHEL loses

Experts feel overall downside for the market is very limited now though it may break the 5900 level on the Nifty in case of negative newsflow.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex maintained positive momentum amid consolidation for the third consecutive session on Thursday. Investors seem to be buyers in most beaten down shares as they seem to be doing bargain hunting.

Global markets supported too. The Sensex fell 181 points intraday due to shorting of index futures before closing 49.71 points higher at 20,310.74.

The Nifty rose 13.90 points to 6,036.30 after hitting an intraday low of 5,965.40. Experts feel overall downside for the market is very limited now though it may break the 5900 level on the Nifty in case of negative newsflow. Ambareesh Baliga, Edelweiss Financial Services is positive on the market.

According to him, there was a scare in the last couple of days which was shorting opportunity for traders, but for investors it was definitely a buying opportunity.

“I am not saying that 5,900-5,925 may not be touched; it is possible in case there are any negative news flows but I do not see very much below that. Therefore, any sort of correction should be utilised to buy,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bhuvnesh Singh, MD & Head of India Research, Barclays, sees the Nifty trading around 6,500 over the next 12 months. He said that investors should expect sub-10 percent returns from the Nifty over next one year. FMCG, metals, power and auto stocks saw buying interest while banks, technology and capital goods were under pressure. Coal India topped the buying list, rising 4.6 percent followed by Hindustan Unilever and Tata Power with a 3 percent upmove. Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki climbed over 2 percent while cigarette major ITC gained 1.8 percent. Private sector lender HDFC Bank spiked 1.6 percent whereas its rivals ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India fell between 0.9-1.6 percent. Software services provider Wipro soared 1.5 percent while TCS and Infosys declined 0.5-1 percent. BHEL was the biggest loser, falling 2.4 percent after the management said nearly 24 percent of the order backlog is now “non-moving” and execution continued to remain slow for number of companies’ orders.

Among earnings, Bank of Baroda declined 0.9 percent. Net profit and net interest income of the bank were better than analysts’ expectations, but asset quality weakened during the December quarter. Central Bank of India surged 4 percent as the bank reported profit of Rs 61.5 crore during October-December quarter as against loss of Rs 1,509 crore in previous quarter. On the global front, Asian markets except Nikkei closed higher. European markets like FTSE, CAC and DAX gained 0.7-1.2 percent at the time of closing of Indian equities.

Source: Moneycontrol