Indian Indices Open At New Highs; Power And Metal Stocks Outperform

Asian stock markets are higher today as Japanese and Hong Kong shares show gains. The Nikkei 225 is up 0.6% while the Hang Seng is up 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite is trading flat. Meanwhile, a broad-based rally pushed the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to record-high closes for the second straight session on Monday as a trade agreement reached between the United States and Mexico buoyed investor sentiment.

Back home, India share markets have opened the day on a strong note. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 213 points while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 53 points. The BSE Mid Cap index opened up by 0.4% and BSE Small Cap index opened the day up by 0.5%.

The rupee is currently trading at 70.04 to the US$.

Barring consumer durables stocks, all sectoral indices have opened the day in green with metal stocks and power stocks witnessing maximum buying interest.

In the news from the aviation sector. Cash-strapped Jet Airways reported a whopping Rs 13.2 billion of net losses for the June quarter due to higher fuel cost, falling rupee and low fares. The comapny said it will monetise loyalty programme JetPrivilege and wet-lease some of its small aircraft to mobilise urgent working capital.

This is the second straight quarter of losses for the Naresh Goyal-run airline, which had last month publicly admitted to cash-flow issues. The airline had booked net profit of Rs 535 million in the year-ago period, while in the March quarter it had reported net losses of Rs 10.4 billion.

The airline said its fuel cost soared 53% to Rs 23.3 billion in the quarter, while low fares had revenue inching up to Rs 60.7 billion from Rs 59.5 billion.

On a consolidated basis, the net loss stood at Rs 13.3 billion, against a net profit of Rs 580 million a year ago.

The second back-to-back quarterly loss forced Jet Airways, which delayed the result announcement on August 9 indefinitely, to announce a turnaround plan which includes a capital infusion by selling a stake in JetPrivilege, and a massive cost-cutting to save around Rs 20-billion over the next two years.