Sensex trades marginally higher, Dow futures up by 88 points

Tata Steel Ltd and JSW Steel Ltd are among the top gainers today. Asian Paints Ltd and Reliance Industries Ltd are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 1%. The BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.5%.

On the sectoral front, stocks from the metal sector, are witnessing most of the buying interest. On the other hand, stocks from the energy sector, are witnessing most of the selling pressure.

US stock futures are trading higher today, indicating a positive opening for Wall Street. Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 5 points (flat) while Dow Futures are trading up by 88 points (up 0.3%).

The rupee is trading at 74.20 against the US dollar. Gold prices are trading up by 0.2% at ₹46,981 per 10 grams. Gold rates continued to struggle in Indian markets, with futures on MCX edging lower for the second day to ₹46,865 per 10 grams. Note that gold may continue to trade in a range amid choppiness in the equity market and US dollar as market players try to assess Fed’s stance.

However, the general bias is still weak as diverging monetary policy outlook may keep the US dollar supported.

Moving on to stock-specific news…

Among the buzzing stocks today is Indian Bank Ltd. State-owned Indian Bank announced that it has raised ₹1,650 crore via its Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP). The Chennai-based lender raised the capital at a floor price of ₹142.2 without offering any discount to investors. The bank has received board approval to raise up to ₹4,000 crore in equity.

Chief executive officer of the bank, Padmaja Chunduru had earlier said that the bank was comfortably placed with a capital adequacy ratio at 15.7% as of March 2021 against the regulatory minimum of 11% and had no urgency to raise capital.

The fresh capital would act as a cushion against any possible future shock as suggested by the Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das.

Meanwhile, in its annual report for 2021, the bank said that it would focus on cost optimization and increasing fee income to improve its bottom line. Business growth, while depending on the revival of the economy, will also hinge on focus towards digital transformation and adapting to the new norms driven by the pandemic, the bank added.

We will keep you posted on more updates from this space. Stay tuned.

At the time of writing, Indian Bank shares were trading up by 1.4% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the engineering sector…

Greaves Cotton set to launch high-speed electric two-wheelers

Greaves Cotton Ltd said that it will launch two high-speed electric two-wheelers in the next two years as it looks to benefit from the growing demand for battery-powered vehicles in the country.

The new launches will take place under Ampere Vehicles, the Coimbatore-based company which Greaves Cotton acquired a few years ago.

At present, Ampere has two models, classified as performance scooters and four models as economy scooters.

Commenting on the launch, Nagesh Basavanhalli, Group CEO, Greaves Cotton, said: "While we still have customers who want low-speed, lead acid battery-powered vehicles, the high-speed, lithium ion-powered products have gained significant traction. Improvement in drive range, power and features are desired and that’s what we would be offering."

Ampere’s last launch came in June last year, with Magnus Pro.

With the increased demand for high-speed models, Basavanhalli added that the company was able to substantially increase the average selling prices of Ampere vehicles.

Greaves Cotton is also working with multiple e-commerce players to custom-build electric two-wheelers. How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates from this space.

Speaking of electric vehicles, note that the power ministry has approved setting up 2,636 electric vehicle charging stations across 62 cities in 24 states.

Here's what the co-head of research at Equitymaster, Tanushree Banerjee wrote about electric vehicles in one of her editions of Profit Hunter: "106 public and private entities have approached the government for permissions to set up about 7,000 EV charging stations. This clearly shows the vehicle manufacturers have enough incentive to capture this latent demand. The tax benefit in terms of a lower GST rate (at 5%) is a further shot in the arm of the EV industry."

As per Tanushree, electric vehicles are very much on their way to invading Indian roads. The threat of disruption in this era is something you cannot ignore.

Tanushree believes one of the companies manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for powering electric cars will be a key catalyst for the Rebirth of India.

This article is syndicated from Equitymaster.com