After opening the day in green, share markets in India witnessed choppy trading activity throughout the day and are presently trading flat with a negative bias. Sectoral indices are trading mixed with stocks in the IT sector and stocks in the realty sector trading in red. While stocks in the oil and gas sector are trading in green.
The BSE Sensex is down by 30 points (down 0.1%) and the NSE Nifty is trading down by 8 points (down 0.1%). Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.1%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.3%. The rupee is trading at 65.17 to the US$.
Among the most active stocks in the BSE Sensex today are SBI (down 1.1%), NTPC (down 0.3%) and ICICI Bank (down 1.4%). Among the BSE 500 stocks, the most active stocks include PNB (up 1.1%), Fortis Healthcare (up 1 %) and Reliance Communications (down 0.2%).
While this should do for the wrap on active stocks, we notice that many of you are tracking low priced shares as well. Low priced shares are not necessarily cheap or attractive. But then, there's a lot of interest in them.
Go ahead, have a look at the most active ones here:
NSE Rs 10 to 20 most active stocks
BSE Rs 10 to 20 most active stocks
NSE above Rs 20 most active stocks
BSE above Rs 20 most active stocks
In news from stocks in the telecom sector. The last of the smaller telecom companies - Aircel Ltd filed for bankruptcy protections under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 after the company's failed attempt in 2017 to merge itself with Reliance Communications.
The company said that it exhausted all options before coming to the decision.
As per Reserve Bank of India guidelines, the company invoked a Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR) scheme in January 2018, but no agreement could be reached with the lenders with respect to restructuring of its debt and funding.
As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, Aircel has over 85 million subscribers.
Companies in the debt-laden telecom sector have been witnessing a double whammy after the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd which brought tariffs to rock-bottom and hit the revenue streams of other operators.
Telecom Sector: A decade of Underperformance
The whole telecom business has been an underwhelming story so far. While the telecom subscriber base has increased from 300 million in 2008 to 1.2 billion in 2017, investors have little to cheer. The BSE Sensex has gone up 3.25 times in nine years, but the BSE Telecom Index has not moved an inch from its levels of 2008.
Telecom companies are straddled with high debt, intense competition, and lack of pricing power. High spectrum costs and regulatory issues have hampered the sector. While consumers have benefited from low costs and new players fighting for their share, investors have suffered.
With the entry of Reliance Jio, the competition has intensified further. Reliance Jio's low-cost offerings and strategy of capturing market share will further dent the sector. The sector has been a classic 'value trap'. While it always looks cheap compared to other sectors, it has failed to provide any reasonable returns. We also believe the situation is unlikely to change in the near future. For an investor, it's important to differentiate between 'value' and 'value traps'.
Moving on to news from stocks in the engineering sector. L&T share price is in focus today after the company's construction arm bagged multiple orders.
L&T Construction's water effluent and treatment business won orders worth Rs 10.5 billion, while its factories business secured orders worth Rs 5.3 billion.
The business has secured an EPC order from Udaipur Smart City Limited for Integrated Infrastructure package of the ABD area of Udaipur City. The scope of work includes design, rehabilitation & upgradation of 24x7 water supply network.Another order was secured from the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, Odisha for providing water supply to various districts in Odisha.In addition, the company also won orders from Dholera Industrial City Development Limited for design & construction of Industrial Effluent Pumping Stations, Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), Master Balancing Reservoir - Recycled Water and Pumping Station in Gujarat.
Meanwhile the buildings & factories business won an order from a reputed IT major for construction of an IT park in Hyderabad.
At the time of writing, L&T share price was trading up by 0.1% after opening the day up by 1%.
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