FALL CONTINUES

The Indian equity markets have made a positive start, but immediately turned into red terrain tracking weakness in Asian counterparts. All the Asian peers were trading in the negative territory at this point of time, indicating somber investors' sentiment. Though, the US markets managed a close of modest gains on Friday but the mood remained cautious amid the European debt concerns. Back home, on the sectoral front software, technology and power remained the top gainers while, metal, consumer durables and oil and gas witnessed the most selling pressure, dragging down the Sensex. Meanwhile, IT space was witnessing some buying in early trade. A fall in Indian rupee has been pushing up IT stocks in recent times because most IT firms earn a large part of their revenues in dollars. However, PG Electroplast, the new listing today, was trading with a cut of over four percent. Moreover, the broader indices too were struggling to get some traction and trading flat at this point of time while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,014 shares on the gaining side against 765 shares on the losing side while 73 shares remained unchanged. Trade may remain volatile today as it being the expiry day for the September F&O series.
The BSE Sensex opened at 16,209.19; about 47 points higher compared to its previous closing of 16,162.06, and has touched a low of 16,039.89 while high remained its opening.
The index is currently trading at 16,075.78 down by 86.28 points or 0.53%. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.
The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 54.75% stocks advancing against 41.31% declines. The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index down by 0.09% while, Small cap index up by 0.26%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.31%, TECk up by 0.17% and Power up by 0.05%. While, Metal down by 1.90%, CD down by 1.05%, Oil and Gas down by 0.93%, CG down by 0.73% and Bankex down by 0.68% were the top losers on the index.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 2.24%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.96%, Wipro up by 1.95%, Cipla up by 0.83% and TCS was up by 0.43%.
On the flip side, Sterlite Industries was down by 3.38%, Hindalco was down by 2.61%, Bajaj Auto was down by 2.13%, Coal India was down by 1.82% and HDFC Bank was down by 1.58% were the top losers on the Sensex.
Meanwhile, the decline in coal production by India's largest coal producer - Coal India, is expected to adversely affect the capacity utilization of the power projects, G B Pradhan special secretary in the ministry of power said, 'Coal India may have a slightly flat or even a negative growth. We will have to do with less.' However, he indicated that the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) may achieve its target Plant Load Factors (PLFs) at 85-87%, but the new capacities which will be set-up by private sector may face the shortage of the coal. 
G B Pradhan said, 'the initial plant load factors of private sector power plants could be as low as 50-60%.' For the current financial year the average plant load factors is expected to be around 75%. The power ministry is also doing an extensive review of case one and case two bid documents. Some of the matters that will be addressed for future projects and agreements will tackle matters such as pass through of fuel cost increase, which has become a serious concern for two ultra mega power projects in Mundra and Krishanpatnam.
Recently, the Indonesian government indexed its coal sales to international prices, because which, the viability of these bids have undergone a change. 'We will also address issues like the timeline for power purchase agreements. Should they be as long as 25 years..' said Pradhan. The review of case one and case two bids is expected to be finish in two to three weeks.
On the issue of coal shortage, the Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said, Coal India had not been able to increase its capacity as per its target. 'We have set high targets for ourselves. Considering the problems we have been having, it is praiseworthy that we are able to stabilize production.' During 2010-11 Coal India's production has declined by 7%, whereas for the current financial year, production is expected to be flat. However, the Coal Minister expects coal production to increase its production by 7% in 2012-13.
The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 4,878.60; about 11 points higher compared to its previous closing of 4,867.75, and has touched a high and a low of 4,879.80 and 4,832.15 respectively.
The index is currently trading at 4,843.75, lower by 24.00 points or 0.49%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 declines on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were Wipro up by 1.78%, Maruti up by 1.62%, Cipla up by 0.72%, SAIL up by 0.62% and TCS up by 0.47%.
On the flip side, Sterlite Industries down by 3.51%, Hindalco down by 2.76%, Sesa Goa down by 2.32%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.31% and Cairn down by 2.00%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 12.07 points or 0.50% to 2,421.09, Hang Seng was down 316.83 points or 1.79% to 17,352.00, Jakarta Composite was down 156.67 points or 4.57% to 3,269.67, KLSE Composite was down 38.81 points or 2.84% to 1,327.13, Nikkei 225 was down 159.97 points or 1.87% to 8,400.29, Straits Times was down 44.47 points or 1.65% to 2,654.33, Seoul Composite was down 14.78 points or 0.87% to 1,682.66 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 96.98 points or 1.38% to 6,949.24.