Sensex Opens Higher; Coal India Rallies

Asian stock markets are higher today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares show gains. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.15% while the Hang Seng is up 0.23%. The Nikkei 225 is trading up by 0.54%. US stocks closed mixed as investors turned cautious ahead of earnings.

Back home, India share markets opened the day on a positive note. The BSE Sensex is trading higher by 88 points while the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 29 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index both opened the day up by 0.2%.

All sectoral indices have opened the day in green with metal stocks and realty stocks witnessing maximum buying interest. The rupee is trading at 63.35 to the US$.

Coal India share price rallied over 4.7% in the opening trade on the reports that it has raised prices of thermal coal by an average 9%. The decision was taken at a board meeting held on Monday while revised prices would be effective from today. It will make power generation costlier by a similar percentage. Cost of cement and fertiliser production is also expected to rise as a result.

Automobile stocks have opened the day on a mixed note with Ashok Leyland and Maharashtra Scooters being the most active stocks in this space. Tata Motors announced that despite tough conditions in some markets, Jaguar Land Rover achieved record global sales in 2017 with retails of 621,109 vehicles, up 6.5% on the prior year.

Retail sales for the month of December were 55,697, up 0.6% and for the quarter were 154,447 vehicles, up 3.5%.

Further, retail sales in December were up in Overseas markets (19%) and in China (12.6%) but down in the UK (15.8%), US (9.2%) and Europe (4.6%), reflecting weaker market conditions in the UK and to a lesser extent the US.

Jaguar retail sales were 15,079 vehicles in December, down 7.8% compared to December 2016 as solid sales of the long wheel base Jaguar XFL in China and the introduction of the E-PACE were more than offset by softer sales of XE and XJ.