Asian stocks are mostly weaker on Thursday, while the dollar and U.S. Treasuries were largely steady ahead of crucial US inflation data that could provide fresh clues on when the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.

Chinese stocks, though, rebounded from Wednesday's sharp decline to keep them on track for their best month since November 2022.

US stock slid Wednesday as investors looked ahead to a key inflation report due later this week.

Here's a table showing how US stocks performed on Wednesday:

Source: Equitymaster

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading 80 points higher and NSE Nifty is trading marginally higher.

Maruti Suzuki, Reliance Industries, and Titan are among the top gainers today.

Bajaj Auto, UPL, and BPCL on the other hand are among the top losers today.

Broader markets are trading on a negative note. The BSE Midcap index is trading 0.2% lower and the BSE Small Cap index is trading 0.4% lower.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed, with socks in the metal sector and the auto sector witnessing buying. Meanwhile, stocks in the oil & gas sector and power sector witnessed selling pressure.

The rupee is trading at Rs 82.9 against the US dollar.

In commodity markets, gold prices are trading 0.1% higher at Rs 62,289 per 10 grams today.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading 0.2% higher at Rs 70,936 per 1 kg.
 

NTPC's Green Energy IPO Plan

NTPC, India's leading power producer, aims to launch an initial public offer (IPO) for its wholly-owned subsidiary, NTPC Green Energy, in the next financial year (FY25).

The company plans capital expenditure (capex) of about Rs 100 bn on the renewables side this year and around Rs 150-200 bn next year. Bhargava said the company typically puts in about 20-25% of the amount as equity.

A Bernstein report recently noted that many renewables companies that had gone the IPO route had ended up remerging the companies with the parent entity.

Bhargava pointed out that there are reports that also suggest that there is a need to go to the market as early as possible.

Amidst India's transition and India's commitment to going ahead and reducing its carbon footprint, NTPC Green Energy plans to have 60 gigawatts (GW) of green capacity by FY32, out of the larger basket of 400 GW of renewable capacity, which the country will have.

Along with its existing capacity, which stands at 3.5 GW, the company is working on a pipeline of close to about 25-26 GW - out of which 8 GW is under construction, another 10 GW under tendering, and another 10-12 GW will be tendered out soon.

A lot of the capacity addition plans of NTPC Green Energy are from the solar energy segment.

The power giant is committed to the development of renewable energy in the country and its potential to decarbonize the energy sector.

NTPC stands among five largecaps that delivered the highest returns to investors in 2023. 
 

Coal India signs JV Agreement with BHEL

Coal India & Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) signed a Joint Venture agreement in New Delhi for setting up an ammonium nitrate plant through surface coal gasification (SCG) technology.

The plant to come up in Lakhanpur area of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, Odisha, is planned to produce 2000 tons of ammonium nitrate per day initially. The annual production is slated at 6.6 Lakh tons, which requires 1.3 million tonnes (mts) of coal.

The coal will be supplied by CIL. BHEL would bring to the table indigenously developed pressurized fluidized bed gasification (PFBG) technology for this purpose.

Notably, ammonium nitrate is a major ingredient in manufacturing of bulk explosives, which CIL uses in large quantities in its OC mining operations, a major source of its coal production.
 

Oil India to Consider Second Interim Dividend

Oil India, a central public sector undertaking, said on 28 February that its board of directors will meet to consider a second interim dividend for fiscal year 2023-24 on 8 March.

The dividend will be declared on the same date if it receives the board nod.

Oil India had, in November, declared the first interim dividend for FY24 of Rs 3.5 per equity share.

This oil & gas stock has risen 12% in the last five days despite weak results for the December 2023 quarter. 

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