Nifty Hits Record High; 15 Points Shy Of 10,000

Asian stock markets are lower today as Japanese and Hong Kong shares fall. The Nikkei 225 is off 0.13%, while the Hang Seng is down 0.06%. The Shanghai Composite is trading down by 0.17%. US equities finished mostly lower as Wall Street geared up for a major week of earnings and US Federal Reserve meeting.

Meanwhile, Indian share markets have opened the day marginally higher. The BSE Sensex is trading higher by 76 points and NSE Nifty is trading higher by 24 points. S&P BSE Mid Cap and S&P BSE Small Cap are trading up by 0.3% and 0.4% respectively.

Barring software stocks and capital goods stocks, all the sectoral indices have opened the day in green with bank stocks and metal stocks leading the gains. The rupee is trading at 64.44 against the US$.

In news from the telecom sector, as per an article in The Livemint, the government is considering giving telecom companies more time to pay for the spectrum they bought, in a bid to give relief to the sector reeling under massive debt and profitability issues.

However, said the inter-ministerial group constituted to look at measures to mitigate the financial stress of the sector is favorably considering relaxing the period of deferred spectrum payment to 16 years. Relaxing the payment period to 16 years could increase telcos’ cash flows by Rs 550 billion.

Reliance Jio, backed by India’s richest person Mukesh Ambani, has ascribed the financial stress in the telecom sector to existing operators like Bharti Airtel and Idea running businesses on debt and investing heavily in unrelated sectors, a charge that has outright been dismissed by the established operators.

Meanwhile, the competition regulator approved the proposed merger between Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, a key step in paving way for creation of India’s largest telecom company by subscribers.