Power stocks trade mixed after Modi launches Saubhagya scheme

At 10:20 AM; the S&P BSE Power index was trading flat at 2,229 against 0.2% decline in S&P BSE Sensex.

Shares of power companies were trading mixed after the Prime Minister, on Monday, unveiled a flagship programme  called “Saubhagya — Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana” to provide power to all households in the country by December 2018. The Rs 16,320-crore scheme aims at providing “last-mile electricity connectivity to all rural and urban household.

At 10:20 AM; the S&P BSE Power index was trading flat at 2,229 after hitting high of 2,250 on BSE in early morning trade.

Siemens, Bharat Heavy Electricals, CESE, Reliance Infrastructure and Power Grid Corporation were trading higher by up to 1%, while Tata Power, JSW Energy, NTPC and Adani Power however, quoting 1% lower on BSE. On comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.2% at 31,540 points.

“Industry observers believe that this represents a natural transition of government policy from electrification of villages to connecting households. Access to energy is central to development and this initiative to expedite that access is strongly positive for growth,” Angel Broking said in a note.

Under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, the government had decided to electrify 18,452 unelectrified villages within 1,000 days, by May 1, 2018. Today, there are only 3,000 unelectrified villages left in the country, Modi said.

Meanwhile, Adani Transmission (ATL) was up 4% to Rs 133 after Edelweiss Securities initiated coverage with a ‘buy’ rating on the stock.

"Over FY18-22, investments in the transmission segment are estimated to jump 1.5x compared to FY12-17 to a whopping around Rs three trillion. Of these, around Rs 0.90 trillion projects are expected to be awarded on tariff based competitive bidding (TBCB) basis. We estimate ATL to garner 20% share of these projects by virtue of its lead position in the domestic market," the brokerage said in a report.