BSE Power index hits over 14-year high; Adani Power zooms 64% in 8 days

India's power consumption has grown steadily at 4.6% YoY in March to 126.12 billion units, showing the impact of early onset of summers and easing of lockdown restrictions by states.

Shares of power generation and its related companies were in focus on Friday as the S&P BSE Power index hit over 14-year high in the intra-day trade, on expectation that improved demand will spur earnings growth of the sector.

Adani Power, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and NTPC from the index rallied between 5 per cent to 10 per cent, while Power Grid Corporation, Tata Power, Torrent Power and JSW Energy advanced in the range of 2 per cent to 4 per cent on the BSE.

The S&P BSE Power index, one of the top sectoral gainers, settled 3.2 per cent higher at 4,171 on the BSE, as compared to 1.2 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The power index hit an intra-day high of 4,187.47 and traded at its highest level since January 2008. Earlier, it had touched an all-time high of 4,929.34 on January 1, 2008.

India witnessed its worst electricity shortage from March 1 to March 30 since October. A surge in power demand in March forced India to cut coal supplies to non-power sector and hold fuel auction plans for utilities due to slump in inventories. "The March deficit of 574 million kilowatt-hours amounted to 0.5 per cent of overall demand or half the deficit of 1 per cent in October," said ICICI Securities in a note.

According to a report by PTI, India's power consumption grew steadily to 126.12 billion units (BU) in March, increasing by 4.6 per cent year-on-year. The surge in power consumption reflects the impact of early onset of summers and easing of lockdown restrictions by states.

As per the power ministry data, power consumption was 120.63 BU in March 2021 versus 98.95 BU in March 2020. The February power consumption also grew by 4.6 per cent in a year.  

"The peak power demand met or highest supply in a day rose to 199.29 GW in the month compared to 170.16 GW in March 2020 and 185.89 GW in March 2021," added the PTI report. CLICK HERE

Among individual stocks, Adani Power hit a record high of Rs 203.55, locked at 10 per cent upper circuit on the BSE. The stock has zoomed 64 per cent in the past eight trading days. Over the past three months, it has rallied 104 per cent, as compared to a 1.6-per cent gain in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Adani Power had posted consolidated net profit of Rs 218.49 crore for third quarter of FY22 (Q3FY22). The company incurred a loss of Rs 288.74 crore while total income stood at Rs 5,593.58 crore relative to Rs 7,099.20 crore in the same period a year ago.

COMPANY	LATEST	PREV CLOSE	GAIN(%)
Adani Power	203.55	185.05	10.0
B H E L	53.95	49.35	9.3
NTPC	142.90	134.95	5.9
Power Grid Corpn	224.50	216.85	3.5
Tata Power Co.	244.90	238.85	2.5
Torrent Power	501.40	491.90	1.9
JSW Energy	304.25	298.90	1.8
Adani Green	1939.15	1913.40	1.4
Adani Transmissi	2399.80	2372.30	1.2