BHEL bags contract for 1,080 MW Manuguru thermal power project from TSGENCO

Valued at over Rs.50,000 Million, the present order envisages setting up a 4x270 MW Thermal Power Plant on EPC basis at Manuguru in Khammam District of Telangana. With this, TSGENCO has reposed confidence in BHEL’s expertise in this sector. 

The newly formed Telangana state utility, Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited (TSGENCO) has awarded Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) with an EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) order for setting up a 4x270 MW thermal power plant in the state. 

Earlier, in December, 2014, TSGENCO had placed an order for BHEL to set up Telangana’s first Supercritical Thermal Power Plant of 800 MW rating, also on EPC basis, at Kothagudem. Valued at over Rs.50,000 Million, the present order envisages setting up a 4x270 MW Thermal Power Plant on EPC basis at Manuguru in Khammam District of Telangana. With this, TSGENCO has reposed confidence in BHEL’s expertise in this sector. 

Significantly, the project is targeted to be commissioned in 24 months on fast track basis with both TSGENCO and BHEL setting up teams to expedite clearances and execution of the project. TSGENCO has also entered into an MoU with BHEL for construction of new thermal power plants totaling 6,000 MW in the state. All these power plants are expected to commence generation within the next three years to meet the state's increasing demand for power. With the order for Manuguru project, 1880 MW has already been awarded to BHEL. To overcome the current uncertainty of coal supply, BHEL shall use its in-house developed fuel flexible boiler in the proposed power plants. This boiler is capable of firing the entire range, from 100% Indian to 100% imported mix of coal. 

Its design has been developed by BHEL with its experience of over five decades of working with various types of coal. It is anticipated that the use of this boiler will provide security against variation in design coal and the coal actually available during operation, thereby offering operational flexibility for uninterrupted generation. BHEL’s scope of work in the project includes design, engineering, manufacture, supply, construction, erection, testing & commissioning of 4x270 MW thermal sets on EPC basis. The key equipment for the contract will be manufactured at BHEL’s Trichy, Hyderabad, Haridwar, Bhopal, Ranipet, Bangalore and Jhansi plants, while the company's Power Sector - Western Region will be responsible for civil works and erection / commissioning of the equipment. Notably, with this order, BHEL’s reference list is enhanced to 35 sets of 270 MW ratings units. 

With a manufacturing capacity of 20,000 MW per annum, BHEL is the largest manufacturer of power generation equipment in the country and has been a partner in the country's vision to achieve self-reliance in energy. The company has established the capability to deliver power plant equipment of 20,000 MW per annum aiming to meet India's demand for power equipment with technology suitable for Indian conditions developed through in-house R&D.

At 12:01 PM, the stock of the company is trading at Rs. 237. The stock is up 2% from its previous close which was at RS. 233. It hit a high at Rs. 238 and low at Rs.233. Total traded quantity on the counter stood at over 1.29 lk shares on BSE.

Crompton Greaves gains on winning order from Power Grid

The stock is now trading 1.2 per cent higher on the BSE. 

Crompton Greaves is trading on a positive note on the back of winning order of Rs. 115 crore from Power Grid Corporation of India.

The stock so far has touched a high at Rs. 167 - up 2.1 per cent from its previous close. Now, the stock is up 1.2 per cent at Rs. 166.

So far, 53,000 shares are traded on the BSE, as against two-week daily average volume of 419,000 shares.

Meanwhile, the Sensex has jumped 236 points at 27,694.

Defence counters gain! Bharat Electronics stock spurts 5%

A report stated that the government sanctioned a Rs 5,113 crore project to develop a next-generation Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS).

Defense stocks  rallied by up to 5% on reports that the government sanctioned a Rs 5,113 crore project to develop a next-generation Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS).

Bharat Electronics stock surged 5% at Rs 3250.

Pipavav Defense and Offshore Engineering Ltd stock was up 2% at Rs 57.

A report said that The Defence Acquisition Council also approved the purchase of 1,512 mine ploughs for T90 tanks for Rs 710 crore and 30 weapon-locating radar for Rs 1,605 crore.

Corporate Announcement

 Board Meeting on March 30, 2015

Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 30, 2015, inter alia, to consider the draft Scheme of Amalgamation of NRE Metcoke Limited and Bajrang Bali Coke Industries Limited with the Company i.e. Gujarat NRE Coke Limited and other connected matters.

Further the trading window as per Insider Trading Code of the Company shall remain closed from March 26, 2015 to March 31, 2015 (both days inclusive).

Top corporate news of the day - March 30, 2015

Shareholders of Trinetra Cement Ltd have given their consent to the scheme of amalgamation and arrangement between the company and Trishul Concrete Products Ltd with India Cements. 

Reliance Communications said it has gained capability to provide 4G services across the country on the back of spectrum won by it in the recently concluded spectrum auction.
 
Shareholders of Trinetra Cement Ltd have given their consent to the scheme of amalgamation and arrangement between the company and Trishul Concrete Products Ltd with India Cements. 
 
UPL is buying a 40% equity stake in Brazilian firm Sinagro group, which is a distributor of farm inputs-crop protection, fertilisers and seeds in the Cerrado region of Brazil. 
 
Grasim Industries has ventured into retailing women garments made of viscose staple fibre. The company’s subsidiary, Birla Cellulose, launched the garment brand Liva, which will be available at 1,000 outlets across 50 cities. 
 
Government is likely to exempt oil producers ONGC and Oil India Ltd from payment of fuel subsidy in the fourth quarter ending March 31, a senior Petroleum Ministry official said. 
 
NMDC limited will complete the construction of the 3 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) integrated steel plant in Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh by 2016. 
 
To capture a pie of the flourishing online retail business, Ashapura Intimate Fashion (AIFL) plans to launch its own e-commerce venture in April. The launch will coincide with the launch of physical stores in major cities across the country. 
 
The Taj Group announced the opening of Taj Dubai located in the Burj Khalifa downtown area in Dubai. This hotel has 296 rooms including 2 lavish suites. 
 
SpiceJet plans to lease seven more Boeing 737 aircraft by May while another Rs5bn is expected to be infused by its new owner Ajay Singh next month. 
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to announce a Rs360bn capacity expansion plan for SAIL's Rourkela steel plant when he inaugurates the modernised unit of the state-owned firm on April 1. 
 
Union Bank of India has deferred its plan to raise Rs13.86bn fund through qualified institutional placement (QIP) to the next fiscal. 
 
GlaxoSmithKline has reached a deal with the British government to supply a new meningitis B vaccine, following a lengthy stand-off over price with the product's previous owner Novartis. 
 
Strides Arcolab has launched its generic drug Sofosbuvir in India under the brand name 'Virso'. This drug, which is used for Hepatitis C treatment and is shown to have cure rates of around 90%, according to Strides officials. 
 
The construction wing of Larsen & Toubro – L&T Construction – has secured orders worth Rs17.11bn during March. 
 
Jet Airways launched daily international flights to Abu Dhabi from Pune, Ahmedabad and Mangalore. 
 
To tap into the growing middle class, travel services provider Thomas Cook is working on a model to reach out to its customers by setting up small outlets in high footfall areas such as malls and markets. 

Spicejet plans to lease seven more Boeing 737 aircraft

Ajay Singh may infuse another Rs 500 crore next month.

SpiceJet Ltd is reportedly planning to lease seven more Boeing 737 aircraft by May.

Ajay Singh may infuse another Rs 500 crore next month.

Singh has already pumped in Rs 500 crore into the carrier.

The airline currently has 17 Boeing 737s and 15 Bombardier Q400s in its fleet. 

India’s measures to revive gas-based power plants will benefit banks: Moody's

The government has now taken steps to make the import of LNG economically feasible for supply to these stranded plants by making the various stakeholders share the higher costs 

Last Wednesday, the government of India approved measures to revive and improve the utilization of stranded gas-based power generation plants in the country. This is credit positive for India’s banks because they have significant credit exposure to such plants.

Among the biggest beneficiaries of these measures are IDBI Bank Ltd (Baa3/Baa3 review for downgrade, ba3 review for downgrade), State Bank of India (SBI, Baa3 stable, ba1) and ICICI Bank Limited (Baa3 stable/Baa2 review for downgrade, baa3).

Power generation plants that use regasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) as their fuel base have been facing significant availability and pricing challenges because the actual domestic production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been significantly lower than the assumptions made when the plants were set up. At the same time, importing LNG at prevailing prices has proved difficult because it increased generation costs, which, in turn, raised prices beyond the reach of buyers.

Among our rated banks, IDBI Bank has an especially high exposure to gas-based power plants and would be the key beneficiary of these measures. SBI and ICICI Bank have exposure to Ratnagiri Power Plant, which is the largest gas-based power plant in India, and would benefit as well.

The government has now taken steps to make the import of LNG economically feasible for supply to these stranded plants by making the various stakeholders share the higher costs. The central and state governments will provide exemptions from certain applicable taxes and levies on the incremental LNG being imported, while gas transporters and re-gasification terminals will reduce their transportation tariffs, marketing margins and re-gasification charges on the incremental LNG. Power developers will forego their return on their equity. The Indian government has also proposed to provide support to power distribution companies that buy this power. The government estimates that there are 24,150 megawatts of gas-grid-connected power generation capacity in India. Of this, 14,305 megawatts of capacity has currently no supply of domestic gas and thus is stranded. The remaining 9,845 megawatts has also been working at a sub optimal level based on the limited quantity of domestic gas in the country.

This capacity involved a significant level of investment, at around $16 billion, most of which was bank financed. To put this in context, the total exposure of the banking system to the power sector at the end of January 2015 totaled around $88 billion, or 9% of total outstanding bank credit. Thus, banks had a material exposure to gas-based power plants that had a high risk of turning into nonperforming loans. Hence, if these measures lead to a revival of these plants, it would be a significant credit positive for Indian banks.

Indices to open on a positive note

After days of weak ends, the market is finally looking up for the day.

After days of weak ends, the market is finally looking up for the day. There is nothing extra-ordinary in terms of cues really, but looks like at least the constant fall may be arrested for the time being. Over the weekend, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said rates would likely start rising later this year though she reinforced her point that the pace of tightening would be gradual and would depend a lot on data.

The outlook is a positive start. The rupee movement will be in focus even as reports state that the telecom auction may keep the dollar flow on. The global cues are more or less positive. US economic growth show a slowdown, dollar saw some weakness and gold lost some of its luster after a rally for over a week.

The day will see the AGMs of Alumeco India Extrusion and Bf Utilities. EGMs for the day include Lokesh Machines, Venlon Enterprises,  Rajsanket Realty and Systematix Corporate Services among others. Sharon Bio-Medicine could be in action as it considers allotment of equity shares.  Himalya International will today consider allotment on conversion of warrants.  Lokesh Machines, which has its EGM today will also consider allotment of preferential issue of equity shares and convertible warrants. Reliance Chemotex Industries will consider issue of Equity Shares.

Global markets will also be cued into Japanese steel data, EU surveys, macro data from Germany, and a host of data from US.

Asian markets are in the green.  US indices ended higher on Friday. The Dow Jones rose 34.43 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 17,712.66, the S&P 500 gained 4.87 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 2,061.02 and the Nasdaq Composite added 27.86 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 4,891.22.

Capital spending in India to take 12 more months to recover, says S&P. 

 

The government could launch the disinvestment programme for 2015-16, the country's biggest so far, as early as the second week of April, provided market conditions remain favourable, says a report. 

The Centre is likely to raise compensation limit for crop damage, says Jaitley

India to become 3rd largest auto manufacturer by 2020, says Ford

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd may cancel more than a fifth of its planned daily flights if it cannot reach an agreement with its lessors, according to reports. The airline is scheduled to make 280 daily flights from next week.

Infosys is planning to look at a two-pronged acquisition strategy, U B Pravin Rao, chief operating officer reportedly said. Report said that the company expects the acquisition size of next-generation tech companies such as Panaya.

Telecom minister has urged the participating companies to shell out a huge Rs. 29,000 crores as this payment was due from the participants at the beginning of the spectrum auction. The funds will be used to meet the government’s fiscal deficit. 

However, tele companies will not comply to this demand easily as they are already reeling under steep bidding prices. 

The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that there is need to take steps to encourage people to use more and more accounted money and discourage the use of unaccounted currency. Jaitley added that with the progress in the growth of economy, more and more people should be incentivized to use plastic money such as credit cards, Rupay cards and cheques or any other negotiable instrument. They should be discouraged to use hard currency or unaccounted money, he added.

Budget carrier IndiGo is leading record market share of 37.1%, carrying 22.21 lakh passengers during the month, according to reports.  Jet Airways, along with JetLite, improves its market share to 24.3% (up from 24.1% in January).. while SpiceJet and GoAir gained 9.2% and 8.9% share of the overall traffic. Air India’s total share in the February traffic stood at 17.8%, says report. 

HDFC Standard Life is planning to sell 10% via IPO, according to reports. A report said that the company has finalised Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and JM Financial to manage the initial public offer (IPO).The company is planning to raise Rs 2,400 crore which is expected to take place in the July-September quarter, says report.

Moody's Investors Service says that Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM)'s spectrum payments totaling around Rs 43bn are at  the high end of our expectations but can be accommodated in its Ba3 corporate family rating with a stable outlook.

Money printing already helping recovery, says Draghi

Bond-buying by ECB will reinforce the euro zone's economic recovery, says Mario Draghi

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said he’s confident that his bond-buying program will hit its targets in the first month of operation, according to a media report.

Bond-buying by ECB will reinforce the euro zone's economic recovery, Draghi told Italian lawmakers in Rome on Thursday.

The central bank started a quantitative-easing program this month that aims to buy 1.1 trillion euros of public-sector bonds by September 2016. The monthly target includes programs of asset-backed securities and covered bonds.

The ECB said on Monday that it had settled public-sector purchases of 26.3 billion euros as of March 20 

Infosys hikes offshore employees salary by 6.5%: Report

Infosys has reportedly raised its offshore employees salary by an average pay of around 6.5 per cent this year, while high performers could get as much as nine per cent. The range of salary revisions offered indicates the revision in the sector would be in the same range this year as last year. For onshore employees, who are located outside India, the average hike this year is around two per cent.

Last year, the company had given a rise of between six and seven per cent for offshore employees and between one and two per cent for onshore ones.

Infosys is a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing solutions. The company enables clients, in more than 30 countries, to stay a step ahead of emerging business trends and outperform the competition.