CESC Bags 140 mw Hydro Power Project in Himachal

CESC Ltd, the Power utility, has bagged a hydro power project from the Himachal Pradesh government on a competitive bidding process. The company has been allocated one project in Himachal Pradesh at Lara Sumta, Vice Chairman Sanjiv Goenka told.

He also said that the company would make an investment of Rs 46 billion as equity component in its power projects over the next 4-5 years and would require about Rs 100 billion as debt component for its projects.

CESC currently trading marginally lower by 0.58% at Rs 393.05. The stock hit an intraday high of Rs 396.90 till now, as against the 52-week high of Rs. 410. The stock hit a low of Rs 392 during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 180 on 12 March 2009.

The stock opens at Rs. 395.05 at BSE. The total traded volume of the scrip on BSE till now stood at 14147.

Meanwhile today, the BSE Sensex is trading with marginal losses of 7.42 points, or 0.04%, at 17,111.61. It has touched an intraday high of 17,275.19 and low of 17,068.37.

On BSE, 2,876 lakh shares were traded in the counter and out of that 1,110 stocks are in positive while 1,703 stocks are on he sellers” radar.

AB Nuvo has an equity capital of Rs 125.60 crore as of March 2009. The face value per share is Rs 10. At the current price of Rs 393.05, the P/E multiple stood at 11.99 with book Value of 233.87 and P/BV at 1.68.

Considering the current price, the stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 13 November 2009, rising 5.26% as compared to the Sensex”s return of 1.55% and NSE Nifty”s of 2.09% return. It outperformed the market in past one quarter ending September 14, 2009, gaining 10.14% as against 5.53% rise in the Sensex and 6.13% rise in NSE Nifty.

CESC is a fully integrated power utility with its operation spanning the entire value chain: right from mining coal, generating power, transmission and distribution of power. We serve 2.3 million customers within 567 square kilometers of Kolkata and Howrah, delivering safe, cost-effective and reliable energy to our consumers. Even after 100 years of service, we still feel younger than ever.

The Company has posted a net profit after tax of Rs 1260 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 as compared to Rs 1240 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008. Total Income has increased from Rs 7860 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 to Rs 9850 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2009.

Exporters Continue to Face the Heat of Weak External Demand

Even as the contraction in India”s outward shipments is narrowing, exporters continue to face the heat of weak external demand where a decisive 54% of exporters still complain of weak external demand conditions which create an unfavourable environment for exports stated PHDCCI.

However, according to the exporting units, the 2 most pressing problems relate to the shortage of overseas demand and low prices charged by competitor countries while the exporters find that their order books are in bad shape due to sluggish revival of demand in markets like US, Europe and Middle East.

India”s exports in October were valued at $3.19 billion against $4.13 billion in the year ago period while the downslide that started in October 2008 due to the global slowdown had touched 39% in May.

However, the pace of contraction has narrowed down with October exports falling by 6.6% compared to that in the same month last year.

On the other hand, many exporters felt that the new Foreign Trade Policy would not help them while exporters find that many of their problems, related to high cost of export credit and un-rebated state taxes and duties, have not been addressed in the FTP.

COMMODITY WEEKLY COMMENTARY

Most of the commodities finished lower last week on heavy profit booking. Recent bounce back in dollar index compelled commodity traders to quit their long positions. However, some commodities viz., aluminum, nickel and natural gas moved on their own fundamentals and ignored the upside of dollar index. Threat of closure of two mines of Alcoa amid the concern that about three quarters of LME  stockpiles have been tied up by long term financing deals by traders and merchants, raised the premium

on aluminum, sent aluminum prices higher.

Likewise, nickel surged on lower level buying. Rest of the  base metals erased their previous gains to some extent on rise in dollar index amid some negative data.

Gold and silver gave up their previous gain due to the improvement in dollar value. However, recent fall in gold prices brought back smile on consumers face and there is an expectation that import will increase. Negative data, fall in GDP of Japanese economy, higher dollar amid expectation of slower demand of crude in 2010 by EIA hammered crude oil prices and it touched two months low. On the contrary, natural gas jumped on increased seasonal demand. Cold snaps in northwest and Midwest revived the demand of natural gas and it recovered across the bourses, where natural gas is used 72% for heating purpose.

Coming to agro commodities, bears completely dominated all commodities. Selling pressure was witnessed throughout the week. Some short covering in many agro commodities witnessed on Friday.

Less demand from processors amid declining export queries exerted pressure on guar complex. Oil seeds and edible oil complex reacted on improvement in dollar amid new crop estimation by Brazil and Argentina generated selling in futures as well spot market across the board. Fall in crude oil prices gave further pressure on prices. Spices made lower trading range last week. Higher Indian parity, lower export queries in the middle of subdued domestic demand compelled spices to trade low.

Speculative activities in turmeric were on high last week. Throughout the week, December contract traded into upper circuits and April contracts traded moreover on lower side, which increased the gap between contracts to more than 3400 level. Wheat futures cooled down owing to increased supply in spot market. Crushing season of sugarcane has already started which has led to a nonstop decline since last three weeks.