Stocks to watch Today 02/12/2013

Reliance Industries (RIL) has bid for three oil and gas blocks and ONGC Videsh for two in Myanmar's maiden offshore licensing round. Besides RIL and OVL, state-owned explorer Oil India and gas utility GAIL India have bid for three exploration blocks each in separate joint venture with local companies. Cairn India, which was among the 61 firms pre-qualified to bid for 11 shallow water and 19 deep water blocks on offer in an international tender, however, did not bid. GAIL bid for three blocks with Kris Energy while OIL teamed up with Mercator Petroleum and Oil Max Energy to bid for three blocks.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has commissioned the first supercritical power generation unit at Barh, near Patna in Bihar. The project belongs to NTPC. The set attained full load of 660 MW on November 30 and it demonstrated the company’s preparedness in setting up supercritical thermal power projects. BHEL had bagged its maiden order for 660 MW sets with supercritical parameters from NTPC through international competitive bidding (ICB) for this 1320 MW project. The scope of work in the contract envisaged design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of two sets of 660 MW each, along with associated auxiliaries.

Tata Motors, traditionally a major player in diesel vehicles, will increase its presence in the petrol segment by launching a new family of engines. In a bid to move up the pecking order, the automaker will roll out the first engine under the new umbrella in 2014. At present, it is the fourth-largest passenger vehicle manufacturer in the country. The company plans to launch a hatchback and sedan next year, fitted with the new engine. This would be a 1.2-litre, turbo-charged engine with more torque, less friction and a better overall configuration. The company’s total sales (including exports) for both its commercial and passenger vehicles segments continued to decline in November. The company posted a 38 percent fall in total sales at 40,863, compared to 66,500 in the year-ago period. Domestic sales of commercial and passenger vehicles fell to 37,192 units (62,354 units).

Realty firm Godrej Properties’ net debt has fallen by 22 percent to Rs 1,260 crore during the second quarter of this fiscal, mainly with the help of funds raised through rights issue. Net debt of Godrej Properties, the realty arm of Godrej Group, stood at Rs 1,611 crore at the end of the first quarter of this fiscal. The company’s debt-to-equity ratio that stood at 2:1 at the end of 2011 calendar year and was 1.1:1 at the end of the first quarter of this financial year has come down to a little over 0.5:1. Through the company’s rights issue, which was oversubscribed, it raised Rs 700 crore which made it India’s largest rights issue in the first half of the current financial year. The part of funds raised would also be utilized to add new projects. Godrej Properties has presence in 12 cities across India with about 90 million sq ft of potential developable area.

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has asked state-owned Coal India (CIL) to ensure that it meets production target for the ongoing fiscal. The ministry has set production target of 482 million tonne (MT) and offtake of 492 MT for CIL for 2013-14. The message was communicated to the company during the target review meeting held on November 27 in Kolkata. CIL produced 35.03 MT coal in October, missing its target of 40.82 MT. It also missed the offtake target of 41.55 MT for the month. It registered actual offtake of 35.51 MT. CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic production, contributed 452.5 MT of coal in the previous financial year compared with the target of 464 MT.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) reported 18 percent decline in sales at 39,255 units in November. The company, India's leading sports utility vehicle (SUV) maker, had sold 48,143 units in the same month last year. Total sales of passenger vehicles, including Scorpio, XUV500, Xylo, Bolero and Verito, stood at 16,771 units during the month as against 24,604 in November last year, down 32 percent. However, it reported a 13 percent increase in its total sales of tractors to 23,119 units in November. The company had sold 20,476 units in the same month last year. Domestic tractor sales were up 13 percent at 22,343 units during the month against 19,757 units a year ago. The exports during November increased by 8 percent to 776 units from 719 units.

Inching closer to becoming a 10,000 MW utility, the country's largest hydro power producer NHPC plans to commission over 3,800 MW of projects over the next five years. Five projects with a combined capacity of 3,810 MW are behind their original commissioning schedules. The 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower project in Assam, which was expected to be commissioned by December 2012, is now likely to become operational by December 2017. It had been delayed since December 2011, after the local people raised issues related to its safety and downstream impact. The Teesta Low Dam Project-IV in West Bengal (160 MW) and Kishanganga in Jammu & Kashmir (330 MW) will be completed by November 2014 and November 2016, respectively. Parbati-II (800 MW) will be commissioned in March 2018. It had been scheduled to be ready by March this year.

Shriram Transport Finance anticipates an increase of up to 0.20 percent in its gross non-performing assets in the next six months as the ongoing economic gloom affects its used truck financing business. The three-decade old company had reported a GNPA of 3.27 percent in the September quarter, as against the 3.09 percent a year ago. Troubles on the asset quality front were the primary reason behind its reporting a 3.1 percent drop in the post-tax profit in the quarter. The company has reported 3.18% fall in its net profit at Rs 326.83 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2013 as compared to Rs 337.56 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. However, total income of the company has increased by 22.31% at Rs 1955.36 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 1598.63 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012.

GAIL India, the nation's biggest natural gas distributor, has lost out on a bid to acquire Ophir Energy's stake in gas blocks in Tanzania to Singapore's Pavilion Energy. GAIL was keen to buy part of Ophir Energy plc's 40 percent stake in Blocks 1, 3 and 4, which are estimated to hold an estimated 15 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. It was, however, outbid by Pavilion which offered to pay $1.3 billion for a 20 percent stake in three gas blocks offshore Tanzania in East Africa. GAIL had put a price of about $600 million for a 10 percent interest. GAIL is aggressively tying up liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies from the US to Russia and Ophir would have given it the first foothold in Africa.

Hinduja flagship firm Ashok Leyland's joint venture with US-based John Deere plans to gradually ramp up product portfolio to gain a significant foothold in the estimated $3 billion construction equipment market in India. The 50:50 JV firm--Ashok Leyland John Deere Construction Equipment Company, recently unveiled a new Backhoe Loader in the country. The model--435E BHL, is specifically targeted at first time users, offering them 10 per cent improvement in fuel cost. Ashok Leyland has six manufacturing facilities with a total capacity of 150,000 units. For BOSS trucks, which are being built at the Pantnagar plant, the capacity is 100 trucks per day.

Metal and mining PSUs SAIL, NMDC and RINL plan to invest nearly Rs 15,000 crore next fiscal towards modernization and expansion, around Rs 2,000 crore less than the projected outlay for the current fiscal. The three firms, under the Steel Ministry, had budgeted Rs 18,584 crore investments towards modernization and expansions for current fiscal, but it was later revised at Rs 15,820 crore. Till October, they have spent Rs 8,032 crore. In 2014-15, SAIL plans to spend Rs 3,300 crore on its Bhilai Steel Plant, as part of its ongoing Rs 72,000 crore modernization and expansion programme to take its capacity to 24 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 14 mtpa now. The company also plans to invest Rs 2,234 crore in its Rourkela Steel Plant, Rs 1,280 crore in IISCO plant, Rs 800 crore in Durgapur plant and Rs 860 crore in the Bokaro plant among others.