Sensex Finishes On A Strong Note; Oil & Gas Stocks Rally

Indian share markets continued to trade strong during the afternoon session amid strong global markets as market participants shrugged off geopolitical tensions a day after North Korea fired a missile that flew over northern Japan.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex closed higher by 258 points and the NSE Nifty finished up 88 points. The S&P BSE Mid Cap finished up by 1.5% while & S&P BSE Small Cap too finished up by 1.3%. Gains were largely seen in metal stocks, energy stocks and realty stocks.

Asian stock markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng gained 1.19% and the Nikkei 225 rose 0.74%. The Shanghai Composite lost 0.05%. European markets are higher today with shares in France leading the region. The CAC 40 is up 0.44% while Germany’s DAX is up 0.43% and London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.25%.

The rupee was trading at Rs 63.94 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 46.17 at the time of writing.

As per an article in The Economic Times, supplies by Coal India to power utilities witnessed 11% growth during August 2017 in comparison to the previous corresponding period.

Till 27th August, the company supplied 26.5 million tonnes of coal to generating units against 23.9 MTs on a like-to-like comparison of previous year. Reportedly, this helped coal fired power generation go up by 18% during the period.

The company is also temporarily regulating coal movement to non-power sector pushing additional coal to these plants in a bid to boost coal supplies to thermal power plants. Additionally, CIL is synergizing its efforts with railways to prioritize movement of coal to plants with critical coal stock. Average loading of rakes per day went up 8% during August 2017.

Coal India share price finished the day up by 1%.

Meanwhile, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) share price finished up by 1.1% after the company and Indian Railways have entered into a strategic agreement on Long Term Tariff Contract.