Asian stocks opened in green following a strong performance by global equities last week. Japanese shares are higher as the Nikkei 225 gains 0.50%. The Shanghai Composite is trading up by 0.15%. Stock markets stateside were closed the previous session for Good Friday.
Back home, India share markets opened the day on a firm note. The BSE Sensex is trading higher by 147 points while the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 52 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened the day up by 0.4% & 0.7% respectively.
Barring bank stocks, all sectoral indices have opened the day in green with automobile stocks and energy stocks witnessing buying interest. The rupee is trading at 65.04 to the US$.
ICICI Bank share price fell over 4.2% on the reports that the bank sanctioned Rs 32.5 billion of loans to Videocon Group because its chairman Venugopal Dhoot supposedly had dealings with NuPower Renewables, founded by ICICI Bank's MD & CEO Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar.
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd's March domestic passenger car sales rose 13.3% from a year earlier to 147,170 units, led by growth across segments.
It is typically observed in March that auto firms dispatch more to their dealerships in a bid to liquidate unsold stock before closing accounts for the fiscal year, the reports noted. Automakers in India report dispatches to dealerships as sales.The utility vehicle (UV) segment, not included under passenger cars, grew 24.3% to 22,764 units in March, driven by sales of Maruti's Vitara Brezza and S-Cross models.
The compact car segment comprising Baleno, Swift and Ignis hatchbacks clocked sales of 68,885 units, rising 13.5% from a year-ago.
Sales in the minicar segment, comprising old workhorses Alto and WagonR, rose 21.1% to 37,511 units.
Meanwhile, sales of the mid-sized Ciaz sedan declined 12.1% to 4,321 units, in line with a trend prevalent since July 2017, when the government withdrew the benefits extended to hybrid models under the goods and services tax (GST) regime.
Further, Tata Motors Ltd posted sales of 20,266 units in domestic passenger vehicles in March, a 31.3% rise from the year-ago period.
The growth was on the back of increasing demand for the company's compact SUV Nexon and full-bodied SUV Hexa as the utility vehicle segment grew by 223%, showing a trend of growing customer base for the utility vehicle segment, the company stated.
Demand was also driven by the Tiago hatchback and Tigor compact sedan, but the overall passenger car segment declined by 4%.
Speaking of the growth of the Indian economy, one of the major indicators of this is the volume of vehicles sold.
For the first nine months of FY18 at least, the auto industry has done well to grow in double digits after some lean years.
Vehicle sales grew by 11.3% YoY during this period. The best performing of the lot were commercial vehicles (CVs), volumes of which grew by 15% YoY. Two-wheelers also did well growing by around 12% YoY.
Auto Volumes are a Good Indicator of Economic Growth
Maruti Suzuki share price & Tata Motors share price opened the day up by 1.9% & 2.4% respectively.
Moving on to the news from the oil & gas sector. As per an article in a leading financial daily, Indian Oil Corp is planning to invest Rs 1.43 trillion (US$22 billion) in next five years as the country's top refiner seeks to raise its annual capacity to about 3.2 million barrels per day by 2030.
Refiners in India, the world's third-biggest oil consumer and importer, have sketched out plans to raise their capacity by 77% to about 8.8 million bpd by 2030 to meet the country's rising fuel demand.
India is emerging as one of the global drivers for refined fuels consumption as its economic expansion and rising industrial activity yields infrastructure improvements and increased energy access for commercial and retail consumers.
Reportedly, the company is going to enhance capacity in terms of crude processing and fuel specification as India plans a nationwide rollout of Euro-VI compliant fuels in the country from April 2020.
IOC's current capacity stands at about 1.62 million bpd including 230,00 bpd controlled by its subsidiary Chennai Petroleum Corp.
IOC processed a record 1.38 million bpd crude at its directly owned plants in 2017/18 mainly due to higher runs at its refineries in Paradip, which was commissioned in 2015, and at Bongaigaon, Guwahati and Digboi in the northeast.
Plants in land-locked northeastern India, with a combined capacity of about 80,000 bpd, for the first time operated at full capacity as the company began supplying low sulfur crude imported at Paradip through pipelines and by road.
Traditionally the northeastern refineries were using local crude, supplies of which have declined.
One shall note that IOC is gradually building its portfolio of alternative fuels such as solar and production of ethanol, as well as boosting its petrochemical production.
IOC share price opened the day up by 0.7%.
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